11'! 


J^ 


mmmm^»^m!>M 


GIFT  OF  . 


THE    WORLD'S    CHILDHOOD 


THE  WORLD'S 
CHILDHOOD 

A  SERIES  OF  SUNDAY  EVENING 
SERMONS  FROM  THEMES 
DRAWN  FROM  THE  FIRST 
THREE    CHAPTERS    OF    GENESIS 


By 

REV.  LOUIS  ALBERT  BANKS,  D.D. 

Pastor    of  Independence  Avenue    M.    E,    Church 
Kansas   City,     Mo. 

Author    of  "Sermons    Which    Have    Won    Souls,"    "Christ    and 

His    Friends,"   "Paul  and  His  Friends,"  "  David  and  His 

Friends,"  etc.,  etc. 


FUNK  &  WAGNALLS  COMPANY 

New  York  and  London 
1910 


^tn 


COPYEIGHT,    1910 
BY 

FUNK  &  WAGNALLS  COMPANY 

Printed  in  the  United  States  of  America 

Published,  September,  1910 


7# 

THE  MEMBERS 

OF 

INDEPENDENCE    AVENUE 

METHODIST  EPISCOPAL  CHURCH 

This   Volume 

Is  Lovingly    Dedicated 

By 

THE   AUTHOR 


CONTENTS 


I. — The  Background  of  Human  Life 
II. — A  World  of  Chaos  .... 
III. — The  Creation  of  Light 
IV. — Goodness  and  Light 
V. — Darkness  and  Light 
VI. — Man's  Glorious  Day 
VII. — The  Treasures  of  the  Night     . 
VIII. — Light  and  Shadow  .... 
IX. — The  Atmosphere  of  Life     . 
X. — The  Appeal  of  the  Sky 
XL — The  Birth  of  Individuality 
XII. — The  Sea  and  Its  Sailors 
XIII. — The  Romance  of  the  Fields 
XIV. — The  Clock  of  Time 
XV. — The  Lamps  of  the  Sky 
XVI. — Beauty  and  the  Beast  . 
XVII. — Man  Created  in  God's  Image 
XVIII.— The  Garden  of  Eden 
XIX. — Marriage  and  the  Family  . 
XX. — Parleying  with  Temptation 

XXL— The  First  Lie 

XXII. — The  Lost  Paradise 
XXIII. — The  Sinner  Becomes  the  Tempter 
XXIV.— The  Dawn  of  Guilt      . 
XXV. — Useless  Covering  for  Sin    . 
XXVI. — The  Cowardice  of  a  Guilty  Conscience 
XXVIL— The  Call  of  God    .       .       .       . 
XXVIII. — Personal  Responsibility 
XXIX. — The  Conflict  of  the  Centuries 
XXX. — The  Promised  Savior     . 

VII 


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THE  WORLD'S  CHILDHOOD 


THE  BACKGROUND  OF  HUMAN  LIFE 

^  *  In  the  beginning  God. ' ' — Gen.  1 : 1. 

A  DISTINGUISHED  Scotchman  once  wrote 
with  his  finger,  in  the  corner  of  his  gar- 
den, in  the  soft  mold,  the  letters  of  his  son's 
name.  He  sowed  garden-cress  in  the  furrows, 
covered  up  the  seed,  and  smoothed  the 
ground.  Ten  days  after  this  the  boy  came 
running  to  his  father,  and  with  astonishment 
in  his  countenance  shouted  to  him  that  his 
name  was  growing  in  the  garden.  The  father 
laughed  at  the  report,  and  seemed  to  disre- 
gard it,  but  the  boy  insisted  on  his  going  to 
see  what  had  happened. 

*^Yes,''  said  the  father,  with  assumed  in- 
difference, *  ^  I  see  it  is  so ;  but  what  is  there 
in  this  worth  notice  ?    Is  it  not  mere  chance  ? ' ' 

**It  can  not  be  so,''  said  the  boy.  *' Some- 
body must  have  contrived  matters  so  as  to 
produce  it. ' ' 

1 


2  TEE  WORLD'S  CHILDHOOD 

^^Look  at  yourself/'  replied  the  father, 
•'and  consider  your  hands  and  fingers,  your 
legs  and  your  feet.  Came  you  hither  by 
chance?'' 

^ '  No, ' '  he  answered.  * '  Something  must  have 
made  me." 

*'And  who  is  that  something?"  asked  the 
father. 

He  said,  **I  don't  know." 

Then  the  father  drew  away  the  veil  from 
this  great  background  of  human  life  and  told 
him  that  * '  In  the  beginning  God  created. ' ' 

I 

This  sentence  which  we  have  chosen  for 
our  text  is  one  of  the  most  stupendous  utter- 
ances ever  recorded  in  human  language.  The 
first  time  any  man  gives  thoughtful  utterance 
to  it  the  mind  staggers  and  reels  under  the 
weight  of  its  tremendous  meaning.  As  we 
steady  ourselves  for  thought  and  contempla- 
tion, it  is  as  tho  we  stood  up  against  a  great 
chain  of  lofty  mountains — mountains  so  high 
and  splendid  that  they  form  the  background 
of  wide-reaching  valleys  and  far-stretching 
plains  which  draw  all  their  fertility  and 
beauty   from   the   mountains    at   our   back. 


THE  BACKGROUND  OF  HUMAN  LIFE  3 

These  mountains  form  the  background  to 
the  valley.  The  valley  owes  its  life  to  the 
mountains.  The  mountain  summits  lift  their 
heads  so  high  that  they  tap  the  clouds  pass- 
ing by  on  the  wings  of  the  wind  with  mois- 
ture gathered  in  far-off  seas  and  compel 
them  to  disgorge  their  precious  treasures 
that  they  may  in  turn  enrich  the  valleys  and 
the  plains.  These  captured  treasures  issue 
forth  in  springs,  and  in  brooks,  and  rivers, 
moving  forth  from  the  deep  canons  of  the 
rock-bound  hills,  and  they  give  life  and  fer- 
tility and  support  to  flocks  and  herds,  and  to 
\dllages  and  cities  in  the  plains  beyond.  So 
you  may  follow  up  the  valleys  of  human  life 
across  the  plains  of  history  and  civilization 
until  you  have  followed  mankind  back  as  far 
as  you  can,  and  you  will  come  straight  up 
against  this  great  mountain  range  and  look 
into  the  mystery  of  the  Great  White  Throne, 
and  hear  this  splendid  but  awful  utterance, 
**In  the  beginning  God." 

II 

The  Bible  does  not  argue  concerning  the 
existence  of  God,  but  in  its  first  utterance  it 
presents  the  fact  of  God  as  the  key  to  the  uni- 


4  THE  WORLD'S  CHILDHOOD 

verse  and  as  the  key  to  human  history. 
Joseph  Parker  once  said:  *M  have  a  great 
and  cunningly  contrived  lock  called  the  uni- 
verse, and  the  question  is  how  to  open  it.  I 
can  not  tell.  It  is  a  grand  lock,  and  I  should 
like  to  open  it.  The  Bible  says,  ^I  can  give 
you  the  key  of  that  lock.'  Then  I  say,  'You 
are  a  bold  book,  and  boldness  is  an  attribute 
of  truth.'  Do  I  stop  there  and  say  I  believe 
there  is  a  key  because  I  have  read  a  book 
which  says  there  is  one?  No.  I  say  to  the 
book,  whatever  its  name  may  be,  'Where  is 
the  key?'  When  the  Bible  says,  'The  key  is 
God,  omnipotent,  omniscient,  omnipresent, 
righteous,  merciful,  holy,  just,  brighter  than 
the  light,  more  patient  than  motherhood, 
more  pitiful  than  fatherhood,  full  of  compas- 
sion, and  most  long  suffering,'  I  take  the 
key,  I  press  it  into  the  lock,  wholly  and 
easily — what  do  I  do?  I  kiss  the  Book,  I 
love  it,  I  call  it  God's  Book,  I  meditate  there- 
in day  and  night.  Have  you  a  better  reason  ? 
Let  me  have  it:  I  will  try  it  exactly  in  the 
same  way — only  it  must  cover  all  the  ground, 
it  must  be  available  night  and  day,  it  must 
not  be  subject  to  climatic  changes,  it  must 
not  succumb  to  atmospheric  effects,  it  must 


TEE  BACKGROUND  OF  HUMAN  LIFE  5 

keep  time  on  the  Alps,  and  keep  time  in  the 
valleys. ' ' 

in 

Now  the  greatest  conception  and  the  most 
important  which  the  mind  of  man  can  enter- 
tain is  the  kind  of  God  which  the  Bible 
brings  as  a  key  to  open  the  lock  of  the  uni- 
verse in  which  we  live.  All  our  religious  life, 
all  our  religious  experience,  indeed,  all  our 
civilization  must  be  dictated  by  our  concep- 
tion of  God.  Men  have  often  made  gods  of 
their  own  imaginings.  Eobert  Browning,  in 
his  unique  poem,  ^'Caliban  upon  Setebos,** 
turns  preacher  and  gives  a  remarkable  ser- 
mon, and  fearing  lest  some  careless  reader 
might  not  be  sure  of  his  meaning,  he  printed 
the  words  of  the  psalmist  as  a  text  above  it, 
**Thou  thoughtest  that  I  was  altogether  such 
an  one  as  thyself."  The  poet-preacher  takes 
Caliban,  Shakespeare's  grotesque  monster, 
and  pictures  him  rolling  and  wallowing  in 
the  slime  of  a  cave  on  an  island,  thinking 
and  talking  to  himself  about  God.  In  the 
heat  of  the  noon,  Caliban  wallows  in  the 
mud,  while  Prospero  and  Miranda  sleep.  He, 
not    drudging    at    their    task,    as    he   glee- 


6  TRE  WORLD'S  CHILDHOOD 

fully  thinks,  talks  to  himself  about  '^that 
other/'  of  whom  his  dam  Sycorax  had  told 
him,  the  god  Setebos — a  god  of  the  Patago- 
nians.  Caliban  thinks  Setebos  dwells  in  the 
cold  of  the  moon;  hates  the  cold  of  the 
moon,  but  can  not  live  away  from  it ;  and  out 
of  very  weariness,  envy,  listlessness,  or 
sport,  made  all  things — made  Caliban  him- 
self. Caliban  considers  what  he  would  do  if 
he  had  the  power  and  thinks  of  Setebos  as 
doing  the  same.  Suppose  Caliban  could 
make  a  live  bird  out  of  clay,  a  bird  that 
could  fly;  he  would  break  its  leg  oif  if  he 
wanted  to,  or  give  it  more  legs.  And  Setebos 
does  absolutely  as  he  likes,  too,  knows  no 
law  but  his  own  caprice  and  is  entirely  gov- 
erned by  caprice  in  his  actions  toward  the 
things  he  has  made,  neither  loving  nor  ha- 
ting. Just  as  Caliban  does  with  the  crabs. 
He  watches  them  going  down  to  the  sea,  lets 
twenty  pass  him,  and  stones  the  twenty-first ; 
throws  a  worm  to  one,  two  worms  to  another. 
**As  it  likes  me  each  time,  I  do;  so  does  he.'' 
But  Caliban  thinks  also  what  he  would  do  if 
the  creature  he  had  made  grew  proud  of  its 
doings,  for  he  thinks  Setebos  is  able  to  make 
things  with  powers  he  (Setebos)  himself  does 


THE  BACKGBOUND  OF  HUMAN  LIFE  7 

not  possess.  Caliban  has  made  a  rude  musical 
instrument.  Suppose  it  were  to  grow  proud 
of  the  poor  music  it  made,  and  thought  to 
claim  credit  for  it.  ^^I  make  the  cry  my 
maker  can  not  make  with  his  great  round 
mouth.  He  must  blow  through  mine!''  He 
imagines  the  reed  saying,  ^ '  Well,  then,  would 
not  Caliban  smash  it  with  his  footT'  And 
of  course  Setebos  does  just  the  same — de- 
stroys his  own  work  out  of  resentment  and 
envy. 

But  Setebos,  he  thinks,  has  a  particular 
spite  against  poor  Caliban,  just  as,  on  the 
other  hand,  he  favors  Prospero.  No  reason ; 
just  caprice  of  the  god.  Caliban  has  built 
a  trap  for  the  turtles,  and  a  wave  comes  and 
sweeps  it  away — the  work  of  six  months  gone 
in  a  moment.  And  Setebos  has  sent  down 
a  ball  of  fire  to  kill  him ;  it  struck  where  half 
an  hour  before  he  had  been  sleeping  in  the 
shade.  Still  in  his  monstrous  mind  he  justi- 
fies the  god.  Above  all  things,  he  himself 
must  be  free  to  do  as  he  likes.  He  knows 
and  can  imagine  no  rule  to  guide  conduct 
excepting  caprice.  And  Setebos  must  do 
as  he  likes  also.  Caliban  can  understand 
that  the  thing  which  would  seem  most  hate- 


8  TEE  WOBLD'S  CHILDHOOD 

ful  to  Setebos  would  be  the  supposition  that 
he  is  bound  to  act  uniformly  or  consistently. 

And  further  than  this,  Caliban  must  not 
seem  happy.  Setebos  would  be  jealous. 
Whenever  he  feels  happy  and  content  he 
must  do  his  best  to  seem  wretched.  He  hates 
the  god,  but  he  dares  not  let  his  hatred  ap- 
pear; no,  he  must  fawn  upon  him,  praise 
him,  grovel  before  him. 

The  finish  of  the  poem  is  fine.  A  raven 
flies  across  Caliban's  line  of  vision  and  he 
immediately  falls  into  great  fear.  To  his 
morbid  imagination  the  raven  has  been  lis- 
tening, a  winged  policeman  of  the  god  Sete- 
bos, ajid  he  cries  aloud  in  terror : 


There  scuds  his  raven  that  has  told  him  all ! 

It  was  foors  play,  this  prattling!     Ha!  the  wind 

Shoulders  the  pillared  dust,  death's  house  o'  the  move, 

And  fast  invading  fires  begin!  white  blaze — 

A  tree's  head  snaps — and  there,  there,  there,  there,  there, 

His  thunder  follows!    Fool  to  gibe  at  him! 

Lo!   'lieth  flat  and  loveth  Setebos! 

'Maketh  his  teeth  meet  through  his  upper  lip. 

Will  let  those  quails  fly,  will  not  eat  this  month 

One  little  mess  of  whelks,  so  he  may   'scape! 

And  so  through  promises  of  self -punishment 


THE  BACKGROUND  OF  HUMAN  LIFE  9 

and  self-denial  Caliban  hopes  to  deceive 
Setebos,  the  god  whom  he  imagines  to  be 
altogether  such  a  creature  as  himself. 

Now  this  picture  of  the  poet  is  very  true 
to  life.  Through  generation  after  genera- 
tion, multitudes  of  men  have  looked  into  the 
clouded  mirror  of  their  own  consciousness 
and  taken  for  God  a  sort  of  monstrous  dis- 
torted image  of  themselves.  But  the  God 
whom  the  Bible  brings  to  us  as  the  key  to 
the  universe  is  a  moral  God,  who  lays  a 
moral  claim  upon  me — a  claim  not  only  on 
my  mind  and  admiration,  but  upon  my  heart 
and  my  affections.  A  God  not  only  great 
and  wise,  but  who  sends  Jesus  Christ  to  me, 
wearing  my  flesh,  sharing  my  grief,  tempted 
in  all  points  like  as  I  am,  to  teach  me  to  say 
^^Our  Father,  which  art  in  heaven.*'  As  one 
of  the  greatest  of  English  preachers  once 
said : '  *  If  Christ  taught  one  thing  more  clear- 
ly than  another,  it  was  that  man  should  be 
brought  face  to  face  with  God,  and  that  noth- 
ing was  grand  in  character  except  what  grew 
out  of  the  love  and  fear  of  God.''  God! — 
God! — that  is  the  great  theme  of  Jesus 
Christ.  The  splendor  of  God  is  on  every 
page,  in  every  parable,  in  every  promise; 


10  TEE  WORLD'S  CHILDHOOD 

and  no  righteousness  that  is  merely  etiquette, 
social  propriety,  good-breeding,  will  stand 
the  test  of  the  final  judgment  held  in  the 
presence  of  God  who  created  us,  who  has 
loved  us  with  infinite  love,  and  given  us 
Christ  to  reveal  God  to  us,  and  to  save  us. 
from  all  our  sins. 

Do  not  misunderstand  me.  It  is  a  grand 
thing  for  a  man  to  be  moral,  whatever  may 
be  the  cause  or  basis  of  that  morality,  but 
the  only  morality  which  can  be  relied  upon 
must  be  based  upon  deep  and  lasting  faith  in 
God  as  the  moral  Ruler  and  Father  of  man- 
kind. 

In  South  Africa  they  sometimes  come 
across  yellow  diamonds.  Mind  you,  they  are 
diamonds,  and  not  pebbles.  They  are  really 
diamonds,  but  no  king  would  ever  put  one  of 
them  into  his  crown.  And  there  is  many  a 
man  and  many  a  woman  to-day  who  is  a 
yellow  diamond.  Their  morality  is  on  the 
surface.  The  morality  of  society,  the  moral- 
ity of  etiquette,  but  they  have  not  been  trans- 
formed in  the  mind  and  spirit,  and  they  do 
not  walk  in  the  love  and  fear  of  God,  and, 
therefore,  God  will  never  know  them  in  the 
day  when  He  makes  up  His  jewels. 


THE  BACKGBOUND  OF  HUMAN  LIFE  11 

I  long  above  everything  else  to  arouse  you 
to  a  keen  sense  of  your  own  responsibility 
to  God.  I  would  that  you  could  see,  with 
eyes  made  clear  by  the  Holy  Spirit,  the  real 
wickedness  of  your  sin  against  God.  It  might 
fill  you  with  terror,  it  might  fill  your  eyes 
with  tears,  but  it  would  be  the  beginning  of 
joy  greater  than  you  have  ever  known.  On 
that  dark  night  when  Peter  had  denied  his 
Lord,  when  the  cock  crew  and  Peter  saw  his 
sin,  he  went  out  and  wept  bitterly,  but  it  was 
the  beginning  of  nobler  and  happier  things 
for  Peter.  Oh,  that  I  might  rouse  you  to 
that  true  and  real  repentance  of  sin  that 
would  cause  you,  like  Peter,  to  choose  for  life 
and  death,  for  time  and  eternity,  to  stand  for 
righteousness  and  for  God!  that  I  might 
awaken  you  to  sing  with  the  poet: 


If  life  is  always  a  warfare 

Between  the  right  and  the  wrong, 

And  good  is  fighting  with  evil 
For  ages  and  eons  long — 

Fighting  with  eager  cohorts, 
With  banners  pierced  and  torn, 

Shining  with  sudden  splendor, 
Wet  with  the  dew  of  morn, — 


12  THE  WORLD'S  CHILDHOOD 

If  all  the  forces  of  heaven, 
And  all  the  forces  of  sin, 

Are  met  in  the  infinite  struggle 
The  souls  of  the  world  to  win, — 

If  God 's  is  the  awful  battle 

Where  the  darkling  legions  ride — 

Hasten  to  sword  and  to  saddle! 
Lord,  let  me  fight  on  Thy  sidel 


A  WORLD  OF  CHAOS 

"And  the  earth  was  without  form,  and  void;  and 
darkness  was  upon  the  face  of  the  deep.  And  the 
Spirit  of  God  moved  upon  the  face  of  the  waters." — 
Gen.  1:2. 

IT  is  almost  impossible  to  picture  the  world 
at  this  stage  in  its  history.  Imagination 
has  little  to  play  upon.  It  is  a  world  before 
day.  Darkness  covers  the  earth,  and  there  is 
no  luminary  to  light  up  its  desolation.  The 
mountains  with  their  picturesque  forms,  and 
the  valleys  with  their  fertile  possibilities,  had 
not  yet  risen  into  being.  The  great  clock  of 
time,  with  its  dial  plate  of  day  and  night, 
marked  by  sun  and  moon  and  stars,  had  not 
yet  been  set  up  in  the  hall  of  the  universe. 
It  was  a  moving  world,  yet  dead.  It 
had  life,  yet  nothing  lived.  It  was 
a  chaotic  mass  full  of  infinite  possi- 
bilities, but  hopeless  save  that  it  was  in  the 
hands  of  the  God  who  created  it.  If  there 
had  been  a  man  at  that  time  with  eyes  to 
peer  through  the  darkness  on  that  heaving 

13 


14  THE  WOULD' S  CHILDHOOD 

mass  of  matter,  he  could  not  have  dreamed 
of  the  world,  which  was  to  be  developed  out 
of  such  a  begimiing.  Only  God,  all-powerful, 
all-wise,  and  infinitely  good,  could  have 
wrought  that  divine  transformation. 


Now  this  chaos  of  the  world  before  dawn 
is  not  unlike  the  conditions  of  the  sinning 
soul  which  has  lost  the  control  over  the  will 
and  become  the  prey  of  warring  passions 
and  evil  habits.  Many  a  man  conscious  of 
this  chaotic  condition  in  his  own  heart  and 
life  has  been  ready  to  cry  out  in  the  spirit 
of  Paul's  agonizing  appeal:  ^^0  wretched 
man  that  I  am!  Who  shall  deliver  me  from 
the  body  of  this  death!''  Many  a  man  try- 
ing to  do  right,  yet  powerless  in  his  own 
strength,  weakened  as  he  is  by  yielding  to 
sin,  has  been  ready  to  exclaim:  **Why  this 
strange  persistent  failure?  Why  this  tre- 
mor at  the  heart!  Why  is  the  hand  still 
put  out  to  pluck  that  which  we  know  to  be 
forbidden?  Why  do  the  feet  turn  again 
down  the  paths  which  lead  to  death?  Again 
it  is  the  old  cause — the  thing  that  T  ought  to 


A  WOULD  OF  CHAOS  15 

do,  I  do  not ;  the  thing  that  I  would  not,  that 
I  do.  Why  can  not  I  do  what  I  want?  I, 
who  mean  well,  yet  fail  in  every  determina- 
tion for  righteousness!  I  am  somehow 
guilty,  I  am  the  secret  of  the  whole  trouble ; 
I,  in  my  nerveless  will,  with  my  perilous  im- 
agination, with  my  clouded  conscience,  with 
my  hasty  thoughts,  I  somehow  explain  the 
continued  failure.  Back  to  myself  I  turn  in 
an  agony  of  self-detection.  My  soul  is  a 
chaos  of  conflicting  passions  and  desires. 
Oh,  miserable  man  that  I  am !  Oh,  my  God, 
it  is  I  that  have  sinned  against  Thee  and 
done  this  evil  in  Thy  sight.'* 

n 

There  is  no  hope  for  this  chaos  of  soul 
unless  there  comes  order  out  of  chaos  through 
the  mercy  of  God.  I  have  been  reading  re- 
cently a  very  interesting  letter  from  a  Japa- 
nese soldier,  who  says  that  about  ten  years 
ago,  while  out  walking,  hearing  the  sound  of 
singing,  he  entered  a  Christian  church  in 
which  a  number  of  men  and  women  were 
singing  hymns.  He  remained  and  listened  to 
a  sermon  on  God,  but  he  would  not  believe 


16  THE  WOBLB'S  CHILDHOOD 

in  a  foreign  god.  He  went  again  and  again 
for  several  years.  The  sermons  had  no  effect 
on  him,  and  the  missionary  was  unable  to 
make  him  understand  anything.  So  he  passed 
those  days  as  a  man  with  no  religion,  and 
for  two  years  preceding  the  war  between 
Japan  and  Eussia  he  even  ceased  going  to 
church.  Early  in  the  war  he  was  ordered  to 
the  front.  He  had  then  about  his  body  twenty 
charms,  receievd  from  as  many  shrines,  for 
his  protection.  He  was  ordered  to  join  the 
Port  Arthur  besieging  army,  and  partici- 
pated in  many  battles.  In  every  battle  he 
saw  many  of  his  comrades  fall,  fully  proving 
the  worthlessness  of  the  charms  they  had  car- 
ried. Uneasiness  came  into  his  heart.  He 
began  to  be  aware  of  the  foolishness  of  wor- 
shiping idols.  Many  questions  arose  in  his 
mind.  *^If  I  die,  where  will  my  soul  goT' 
'^Will  it  have  to  wander  about,  finding  no- 
where to  settle?  Or  is  there  some  fixt  place 
to  which  it  is  destined  to  go?''  In  this  way 
he  passed  three  months  in  a  distrest  con- 
dition of  mind.  One  day  he  was  sent  near  to 
the  enemy  as  a  sentry.  The  sun  set  and  a 
dark  night  came  on.  Silence  prevailed  all 
around  him,  only  broken  by  the  occasional 


A  WOBLD  OF  CHAOS  17 

reports  of  guns.  Loneliness  increased  the 
anxiety  of  his  heart,  and  he  thought  of  home. 
Then  suddenly,  as  suddenly  as  the  vision 
came  to  Paul  on  the  way  to  Damascus,  at 
midnight  instead  of  midday,  the  Holy  Spirit 
brought  to  this  lonely  soldier's  mind  and 
heart  a  full  interpretation  and  revelation  of 
all  that  Christian  missionary  had  preached 
to  him,  and  he  realized  that  there  was  a  liv- 
ing and  a  true  God,  the  Creator  of  the  world, 
who  protects  us  and  is  rich  in  love,  and  will 
give  us  what  we  need  if  we  ask  Him  with 
faith. 

For  the  first  time  in  his  life,  the  soldier 
turned  his  face  upward  to  heaven  and  prayed 
to  God.  The  answer  was  immediate.  He  at 
once  regained  courage,  for  he  could  feel  that 
God  was  protecting  him  at  all  times  and 
wherever  he  might  be.  And  so  order  came 
out  of  chaos  in  his  heart,  and  perfect  peace 
reigned.  Since  then  he  has  been  growing 
wonderfully  in  a  knowledge  of  Christ  and  in 
the  graces  of  the  Christian  life.  The  soldier 
closes  his  most  remarkable  letter  with  this 
striking  paragraph :  *  ^  I  do  not  covet  worldly 
treasures  any  more,  but  those  given  by  Him, 
which  shall  neither  rust  nor  be  lost.    Jesus 


18  TBE  WOULB'S  CHILDHOOD 

promised  us  that  He  would  be  with  us  till 
the  end  of  the  world,  and  so  I  will  not  shrink 
from  any  duty.  I  am  protected  by  His  hands, 
and  am  working  for  the  sake  of  the  Gospel. 
Jesus  is  calling  to  sinners  all  the  time,  and  it 
is  our  duty  to  make  the  people  know  this 
call.  Tho  the  path  is  rugged,  I  shall  pass 
over  it  with  ease  when  the  Lord  is  with  me. 
I  thank  God  day  and  night,  and  have  no 
anxiety  nor  fear.'' 


Ill 


The  hope  of  the  chaotic  world,  and  the 
hope  of  the  sinning  soul,  is  all  in  the  brood- 
ing Spirit  of  God  seeking  to  bring  order  out 
of  chaos,  to  bring  life  out  of  death,  light  out 
of  darkness,  and  beauty  out  of  barrenness 
and  ruin.  It  was  God's  Spirit  brooding  over 
the  formless  world  that  put  the  sun  in  the 
heavens,  that  filled  the  world  with  warmth 
and  light,  that  made  the  earth  green  with 
herbage,  that  caused  forests  to  grow  upon 
the  hillsides,  with  birds  to  sing  in  them,  and 
planted    flowers    to    exhale    their    perfume 


A  WOULD  OF  CHAOS  19 

in  the  valleys.^  So  God's  Spirit  broods 
over  the  heart  of  man  that  has  fallen 
into  darkness  and  chaos  through  sin.  As  a 
mother  broods  over  her  child,  so  the  Spirit  of 
God  broods  over  the  soul  that  has  sinned, 
seeking  to  dispel  the  darkness  and  to  bring 
back  again  life  and  light  and  beauty.  When 
the  Spirit  of  God  brooded  over  the  world  of 
chaos,  no  human  eye,  had  there  been  one  to 
look  upon  it,  could  have  seen  anything  beau- 
tiful or  lovable  in  it.  But  God  saw  the  pos- 
sibilities that  were  there,  when  once  there 
had  been  lavished  upon  it  His  infinite  skill 
and  loving  care.  So  in  the  poor  sinning 
soul,  which  seems  all  ugly  and  repulsive  to 
the  human  eye,  God  sees  that  which  His  love 
and  skill  can  bring  forth,  and  continues  to 
brood  over  the  wrecked  and  broken  man, 
oftentimes  when  all  others  have  lost  hope. 
Dr.  W.  J.  Dawson  said  in  one  of  his  recent 
sermons  that  there  is  a  buried  magnificence 
in  many  a  man  of  whom  you  think  ill,  and 
have  reason  to  think  ill,  just  as  yonder,  out 
in  the  vast  desert  of  the  East,  but  a  little 
way  down  beneath  the  dust,  the  blown  sand, 
the  drift  of  centuries,  there  often  lies  a  city 
with  all  its  temples,  its  palaces,  its  marbles. 


20  TEE  WORLD'S  CHILDHOOD 

and  its  paintings,  perfect  and  complete.  For 
centuries  many  men  rode  to  and  fro  across 
the  desert,  and  the  great  caravans  passed 
from  East  to  West,  and  no  one  saw  anything 
more  than  the  desert  and  the  drifted  sand 
there.  Yet  all  the  time  there  is  the  hidden 
city;  and  some  day  there  comes  one  who 
knows,  and  he  begins  to  dig,  and  there  comes 
to  light  a  poem  that  was  hidden,  a  picture 
that  was  covered  up.  So  in  many  a  man 
there  is  a  hidden  poem,  there  is  a  hidden 
picture,  there  is  buried  splendor.  Indeed, 
we  ought  not  to  say  in  many  a  man — it  is  in 
every  man — and  the  brooding  Spirit  of  God 
is  seeking  to  uncover  it  and  bring  it  forth  to 
life  and  power. 


IV 


Now,  my  friends,  it  is  possible  for  a 
man  or  a  woman  to  thwart  the  Spirit  of  God. 
We  are  not  merely  soil.  Tho  God  broods  over 
us  ever  so  tenderly,  and  Christ  comes  seek- 
ing admission  into  our  hearts  that  He  may 
execute  the  gracious  mission  of  the  Holy 


A  WORLD  OF  CHAOS  21 

Spirit,  He  will  not  break  down  the  door  into 
our  souls.  When  Sir  Noel  Paton  painted  his 
great  picture  of  Christ  wearing  the  crown  of 
thorns,  standing  outside  the  door,  knocking, 
he  invited  a  very  dear  friend  to  come  to  his 
studio  and  look  at  the  picture  before  it  was 
put  on  exhibition.  His  friend  gazed  for  a 
few  moments  on  the  beautiful  figure  of  the 
Christ  at  the  rude  door,  and  then  exclaimed 
in  amazement,  *  *  Paton,  you  have  made  a  ter- 
rible mistake  here.'*  **What  mistake  have  I 
mader*  said  the  artist.  '*Why,  you  have 
painted  a  door  without  a  handle. ' '  *  *  That  is 
not  a  mistake,''  replied  Paton.  **That  door 
has  no  handle  on  the  outside.  It  is  inside." 
I  am  sure  there  are  some  of  you  here  who 
need  to  learn  that  lesson  now.  You  have 
been  waiting,  it  may  be,  for  some  tidal  wave 
of  sentiment  or  emotion,  something  you  could 
not  resist,  to  sweep  you  off  your  feet  and 
into  the  kingdom  of  God.  Salvation  will 
never  come  to  you  in  that  way.  The  door- 
knob is  on  the  inside  of  your  heart.  **  Whoso- 
ever will"  may  open  the  door  and  give  wel- 
come to  the  Savior.  Christ  stands  there 
knocking.  How  strongly  Harriet  Beecher 
Stowe  has  drawn  the  picture  in  her  poem : 


THE  WORLD'S  CHILDHOOD 

Knocking,  knocking,  ever  knocking! 
Who  is  there? 

'Tis  a  pilgrim,  strange   and  kingly, 
Never  such  was  seen  before. 
Ah,  sweet  soul,  for  such  a  wonder 
Undo  the  door. 

No,  that  door  is  hard  to  open, 
Hinges  rusty,  latch  is  broken; 
Bid  Him  go! 

Wherefore,    with    that    knocking    dreary. 
Scare  the  sleep  from  one  so  weary, 
Say  Him,  ''No/' 

Knocking,  knocking,  ever  knocking! 
What,  still  there? 

Oh,  sweet  soul,  but  once  behold  Him, 

With  the  glory-crowned  hair; 

And  those  eyes  so  strange  and  tender. 

Waiting  there. 
Open,  open,  once  behold  Him — 
Him,  so  fair. 

Ah,  that  door!    Why  wilt  Thou  vex  me. 
Coming  ever  to  perplex  me? 
For  the  key  is  stiffly  rusty, 
And  the  bolt  is  clogged  and  dusty. 
Many-fingered  ivy-vine 
Seals  it  fast  with  twist  and  twine; 
Weeds  of  years  and  years  before 
Choke  the  passage  of  that  door. 


A  WORLD  OF  CHAOS  23 

Knocking,   knocking!     What,   still   knocking! 
He  still  there? 
What's  the  hour?     The  night  is  waning, 
In  my  heart  a  drear  complaining, 
And  a  chilly,  sad  unrest. 
Ah!    His  knocking!    It  disturbs  me, 
Scares  my  sleep  with  dreams  unblest! 
Give  me  rest. 
Rest,  ah  rest! 


Rest,  dear  soul,  He  longs  to  give  thee; 
Thou  hast  only  dreamed  of  pleasure, 
Dreamed  of  gifts  and  golden  treasure 
Dreamed  of  jewels  in  thy  keeping. 
Waked  to  weariness  and  weeping. 
Open  to  thy  soul's  one  Lover, 
And  thy  night  of  dreams  is  over; 
The  true  gifts  He  brings  have  seeming 
More  than  all  thy  faded  dreaming  ! 

Did  she  open?    Doth  she?    Will  she? 

So,  as  wondering  we  behold, 
Grows  the  picture  to  a  sign, 
Prest  upon  your  soul  and  mine; 
For  in  every  heart  that  liveth 
Is  that  strange  mysterious  door; 
Tho  forsaken  and  betangled, 
Ivy-gnarled  and  weed  be-tangled, 
Dusty,  rusty,  and  forgotten, 


24  TEE  WORLD* S  CHILDHOOD 

There  the  pierced  hand  still  knocketh, 
And  with  ever-patient  watching, 
With  the  sad  eyes  true  and  tender, 
With  the  glory-crowned  hair, 
Still  a  God  is  waiting  there. 


THE  CEEATION  OF  LIGHT 

*'And  the  Lord  said,  let  there  be  light;  and  there 
was  light.  * ' — Genesis  1:3.    ^ 

MILTON,  in  his  immortal  poem,  ** Paradise 
Lost,*'  represents  Adam  as  asking 
Eaphael  to  relate  to  him  why  and  how  the 
world  was  created.  And  Raphael  goes  on  to 
tell  him,  in  the  poem,  how  God,  after  the  ex- 
pulsion of  Satan  and  his  angels  from  heaven, 
because  of  their  pride  and  rebellion,  declared 
his  purpose  to  create  another  world,  peopled 
with  other  creatures,  and  sent  His  Son  with 
a  great  retinue  of  angels  to  perform  the 
work  of  creation.  When  they  visited  the 
world  of  chaos  the  divine  voice  exclaimed: 

*  *  Silence,  ye  troubled  waves !  and  thou  deep,  peace ! 

Your  discord  end ! '  * 
Kor  stayed ;  but  on  the  wings  of  cherubim 
Uplifted,  in  paternal  glory  rode 
Far  into  Chaos,  and  the  world  unborn; 
For  Chaos  heard  his   voice:   him   all  his  train  * 
Followed  in  bright  procession,  to  behold 
Creation,  and  the  wonders  of  his  might. 
They  stayed  the  fervid  wheels,  and  in  his  hand 
25 


26  THE  WOBLD'S  CHILDHOOD 

He  took  the  golden  compasses,  prepared 
In  God's  eternal  store,  to  circumscribe 
This  universe,  and  all  created  things; 
One  foot  he  centered  and  the  other  turn  'd 
Round  through  the  vast  profundity  obscure, 
And  said,  ^^Thus  far  extend,  thus  far  thy  bounds. 
This  be  thy  just  circumference,  0  world!" 
Thus  God  the  heaven  created,  thus  the  earth. 

' '  Let  there  be  light, ' '  said  God ,  and  forthwith  light 
Ethereal,   first   of   things,   quintessence   pure. 
Sprung  from  the  deep;  and  from  her  native  east 
To  journey  through  the  airy  gloom  began. 
Sphered  in  a  radiant  cloud,  for  yet  the  sun 
Was  not. 


I 


Scientific  research  in  our  own  day  is  bring- 
ing science  into  far  greater  harmony  with 
the  Bible  account  of  creation  than  was  true 
in  earlier  times.  It  used  to  be  asked  in  all 
seriousness  by  science,  **How  could  light  ex- 
ist before  the  sun?''  All  such  perplexity  has 
disappeared.  Modern  science  has  discovered 
that  light  is  not  conditioned  by  perfected 
luminous  bodies,  but  that  light  bodies  are 
conditions  of  a  preceding  luminous  element; 


THE  CBEATION  OF  LIGHT  27 

that  is,  that  light  could  exist  before  the  sun 
was  created. 

A  century  ago  materialism  was  both  fash- 
ionable and  scientific.  Men  were  boasting, 
^^Give  me  the  least  bit  of  bioplasm  and  I 
will  construct  a  universe.  Everything  is 
spontaneously  generated  from  some  other 
thing.  Mind  and  matter  come  from  the 
same  primordial  cell.*'  In  those  days  men 
were  making  tremendous  attempts  to  get 
something  out  of  nothing.  Science  was  try- 
ing to  get  effects  without  causes.  No  repu- 
table scientist  talks  that  way  to-day.  Prof. 
John  Fiske,  one  of  the  greatest  of  the  mod- 
ern scientists,  tells  us  that  **The  impetus  of 
modern  scientific  thought  tends  with  over- 
whelming force  toward  the  conception  of  a 
single  First  Cause,  or  Prime  Mover,  perpet- 
ually manifested  from  moment  to  moment  in 
the  changes  that  make  up  the  universe. '* 
God  is  no  longer  thought  of  as  far  off,  but 
immanent,  revealing  Himself  in  all  the  phe- 
nomena of  the  universe  which  He  has 
created.  The  presence  of  God  encompasses 
us  about  and  illuminates  all  our  existence. 
So  it  is  true  that  David,  writing  his  Psalm 
on  the  skin  of  some  wild  animal,  perhaps, 


28  THE  WORLD'S  CHILDHOOD 

and  it  may  be  in  some  mountain  cave,  nearly 
three  thousand  years  ago,  was  in  perfect 
agreement  with  modem  science  when  he 
said:  ^^Thou  compassest  my  path  and  my 
lying  down  and  art  acquainted  with  all  my 
ways.  .  .  .  Thou  hast  beset  me  behind 
and  before.  .  .  .  Whither  shall  I  go  from 
thy  Spirit  ?  Or  whither  shall  I  flee  from  thy 
presence?  If  I  ascend  up  into  heaven  thou 
art  there:  If  I  make  my  bed  in  hell,  behold, 
thou  art  there.  If  I  take  the  wings  of  the 
morning,  and  dwell  in  the  uttermost  parts 
of  the  sea;  even  there  shall  thy  hand  lead 
me,  and  thy  right  hand  shall  hold  me.  If  I 
say.  Surely  the  darkness  shall  cover  me; 
even  the  night  shall  be  light  about  me.  Yea, 
the  darkness  hideth  not  from  thee;  but  the 
night  shineth  as  the  day.  The  darkness  and 
the  light  are  both  alike  to  thee." 


II 


No  other  figure  is  used  so  frequently  in 
the  Bible  to  present  the  goodness  and  glory 
of  God  as  the  light.  David  describes  God 
as  ** clothed  with  light  as  a  garment.''  And 
again  he  exclaims,  **The  Lord  is  my  light 


THE  C  BE  AT  ION  OF  LIGHT  29 

and  my  salvation."  St.  John  in  his  first 
epistle  makes  the  wonderful  declaration  that 
*^God  is  light,  and  in  him  is  no  darkness  at 
all."  The  same  figure  is  used  to  represent 
to  us  the  glorious  personality  of  Jesus.  He 
Himself  makes  the  bold  declaration,  *^I  am 
the  light  of  the  world.  He  that  followeth 
me  shall  not  walk  in  darkness."  Malachi, 
looking  down  through  the  centuries,  saw  the 
Christ  rising  on  the  world  as  '^The  Sun  of 
Eighteousness,  with  healing  in  His  wings." 
And  about  the  time  of  the  birth  of  Jesus  it 
was  declared  that  those  who  lived  in  the  val- 
ley of  darkness  had  seen  a  great  light. 

Christ  declares  that  those  who  follow  Him 
and  become  His  disciples  also  become  the 
*4ight  of  the  world."  Paul  describes  Chris- 
tians as  *Hhe  children  of  the  light  and  of  the 
day."  In  his  letter  to  the  Philippians  he 
declares  that  Christians  ought,  in  the  midst 
of  a  crooked  and  perverse  age,  to  hold  forth 
the  word  of  life  as  a  bright  torch.  John  said 
that  Christians  should  **walk  in  the  light  as 
children  of  the  light."  And  our  Savior  has 
given  the  splendid  promise  that  the  day  shall 
come  when  the  righteous  shall  **  shine  forth 
as  the  sun  in  the  kingdom  of  their  Father." 


30  THE  WOBLD'S  CHILDHOOD 

III 

As  the  natural  light  illumines  the  world, 
so  the  spiritual  light  seen  in  God's  Word,  in 
the  life  of  Jesus,  and  shining  in  our  hearts 
and  consciences,  convicts  us  of  sin  and  re- 
veals to  us  the  way  of  salvation.  During  the 
life  of  Jesus  one  of  the  most  frequent  mira- 
cles He  wrought  was  to  open  the  eyes  of  the 
blind  and  give  them  sight.  And  His  miracles 
were  not  confined  to  the  opening  of  the 
physical  eye,  but  extended  to  the  eye  of 
the  soul  as  well.  Many  whom  He  met  were 
like  Zacchasus,  with  no  outlook  beyond  his 
money  bags,  with  no  soul  above  the  gather- 
ing of  worldly  goods.  But  after  ZacchaBUS 
had  met  with  Jesus,  had  looked  into  His 
eyes  and  listened  to  His  conversation,  a 
great  light  shone  about  him  and  within 
him,  and  he  realized  that  money  was  not 
everything.  In  his  shame  and  penitence 
he  declared  that  he  would  give  back  four- 
fold where  he  had  gotten  money  wrong- 
fully, and  half  the  balance  he  would  give 
to  the  poor. 

Peter  was  proud  of  himself  and  had  a 
great    deal    of    self-righteousness,    but    one 


THE  CREATION  OF  LIGHT  31 

day  when  he  was  with  Jesus  the  light  shone 
into  his  heart  and  so  revealed  his  real  self 
to  him  that  he  fell  at  the  feet  of  the  Master 
and  cried  aloud,  **  Depart  from  me,  for  I 
am  a  sinful  man,  0  Lord."  Then  there 
was  that  poor  lost  woman  who  had  been 
going  her  way  of  sin,  indifferent  and  hard- 
ened, until  she  met  Jesus.  But  when  she 
looked  into  His  face,  and  the  light  of  His 
eyes  showed  her  the  sin  of  her  own  heart, 
she  melted  under  that  gaze,  and  you  remem- 
ber how  she  came  to  the  rich  man^s  house, 
when  He  was  at  dinner,  with  her  ala- 
baster box  of  costly  perfume,  and  poured  it 
upon  His  head,  and  how  in  her  sense  of 
gratitude  and  unworthiness  she  washed  His 
feet  with  her  tears,  and  wiped  them  with  the 
hairs  of  her  head,  and  heard  the  words  of 
Jesus,  which  were  like  sunshine  after  rain 
to  her  soul,  telling  her  that  all  her  sins 
were  forgiven. 


She  sat  and  wept  beside  His  feet,  the  weight 
Of  sin  opprest  her  heart,  for  all  the  blame 
And  the  poor  malice  of  the  worldly   shame 
To  her  was  past,  extinct,  and  out  of  date, 
Only  the  sin  remained,  the  leprous  state; 


32  TEE  WORLD'S  CHILDHOOD 

She  would  be  melted  by  the  heart  of  love, 
By   fires   far   fiercer   than   are  blown   to   prove 
And  purge  the  silver  ore  adulterate. 

She  sat   and  wept,   and  with  her  untressed  hair 
She  wiped  the  feet  she  was  so  blest  to  touch, 

And  He  wiped  off  the  soiling  of  despair 

From  ber  sweet  soul  because  she  loved  so  much. 

I  am  a  sinner  full  of  doubts  and  fears. 

Make  me  a  humble  thinj?  of  love  and  tears. 


IV 


As  the  natural  light  illumines  the  outer 
world  of  sight  and  sound,  so  the  spiritual 
light  illumines  our  relation  to  our  fellow 
men.  Jesus  Christ  has  shown  us  in  the 
light  of  His  words  and  life  that  there  is 
as  much  hope  for  one  class  of  men  as  for 
another,  and  that  there  are  the  possibilities 
for  the  worst  and  the  possibilities  for  the 
best  in  every  human  being.  As  we  come 
to  know  Jesus  and  live  in  the  light  of  His 
countenance  we  know  that  we  are  not 
'* Egyptian  snakes  in  a  basket,"  as  Thomas 
Carlyle  said,  each  trying  to  get  his  head 
above  another,  but  that  we  are  brothers. 
When  the  people  said  of  Jesus,  ''This  man 


THE  CBEATION  OF  LIGHT  33 

receiveth  sinners,  and  eateth  with  them,'' 
tho  they  did  not  understand  it,  they  had 
discovered  the  key-note  of  His  life  and 
gospel.  The  most  degraded  and  neglected 
man  was,  and  is  now,  dear  to  Jesus. 

A  fellow  minister  tells  us  how  he  was  walk- 
ing down  the  street  one  day  when  he  saw 
a  woman,  good  and  pure,  refined  and  cul- 
tured, walking  with  a  man  whose  face  was 
red  with  drink,  whose  form  and  look  and 
manners  bore  the  marks  of  deepest  dissi- 
pation. He  stept  to  her  side  and  said, 
*^  Madam,  why  are  you  with  this  manT' 
She  little  heeded  him  at  first  as  she  sup- 
ported her  disreputable  companion's  un- 
steady steps.  ** Madam,"  the  minister  said, 
*^why  do  you  not  hand  him  over  to  the 
police!"  She  drew  herself  up  and  with 
a  righteously  indignant  anger  mingled  with 
pathos,  said:  *^SirI  I  am  his  mother. 
I  am  his  mother."  So  Jesus  Christ  says 
of  each  lost  man,  **I  am  his  brother!" 
And  of  every  poor  sinning  woman,  **I  am 
her  brother!"  We  must  learn  this  lesson 
from  Jesus.  The  light  of  heaven  which 
has  shined  in  our  hearts  is  not  for  our- 
selves alone,  but  for  our  brothers  and  sisters 


U  THE  WOBLD'S  CHILDHOOD 

about   us.     Shakespeare,   in   '*  Measure   for 
Measure,''  says: 

Heaven  doth  with  us  as  we  with  torches  do. 

Not  light  them  for  themselves;  for  if  our  virtues 

Did  not  go  forth  of  us,  'twere  all  alike 

As  if  we  had  them  not.    Spirits  are  not  finely  touched 

But  to  fine  issues. 

The  Apostle  Paul  was  of  the  same  mind 
when  he  said,  '^I  am  debtor  both  to  the 
Greeks  and  the  barbarians.''  He  felt  that, 
having  received  the  grace  of  God  in  the 
forgiveness  of  his  sins,  he  owed  the  Gospel 
to  every  other  man  in  the  world  who  did  not 
have  it.  I  would  that  God  would  put  the 
same  feeling  heavily  upon  every  one  of 
our  hearts.  The  sinners  in  this  wicked  city 
would  soon  be  won  to  Christ  if  all  Christians 
felt  as  they  ought  their  obligation  to  share 
with  others  their  faith  in  Jesus.  The  more 
we  have  received,  the  richer  our  own  ex- 
perience of  the  love  of  God,  the  more  in- 
tense should  be  our  sense  of  obligation  to 
carry  its  helpfulness  to  those  who  need  it 
most.  Jesus  said  that  even  'Hhe  Son  of 
Man  came  not  to  be  ministered  unto,  but 
to     minister,"     and     Whittier,     his     heart 


THE  CBEATION  OF  LTCrHT  .         35 

warmed  with  the  same  thought,  beautifully 
says : 

Our  Friend,  our  Brother,  and  our  Lord, 

What  may  Thy  service  be? 
Not  name,  nor  form,  nor  ritual  word, 

But  only  following  Thee. 
We  bring  no  ghastly  holocaust, 

We  pile  no  graven  stone, 
He  serves  the  best  who  loves  the  most, 

His  brothers  and  Thy  own. 


GOODNESS  AND  LIGHT 

"God  saw  the  light,  that  it  was  good/^ — Gen.  1:  4. 

THIS  is  a  declaration  that  in  the  sight 
of  God  light  is  good  in  itself.  There 
was  as  yet  nothing  beautiful  for  it  to  shine 
upon.  The  mountains  had  not  yet  lifted 
themselves  from  above  the  waste  of  waters. 
There  were  no  forests,  no  valleys,  no  wide- 
reaching  plains,  no  birds,  no  beauty  of 
any  kind  except  the  beauty  which  is  inherent 
in  light  itself.  But  God  declares  that  the 
light  is  good,  whatever  it  may  shine  upon. 
Light  is  God's  chariot,  which  conveys  heat 
and  purifies  and  cleanses  all  upon  which  it 
shines.  All  that  was  to  be  good  and  beauti- 
ful in  the  world  was  to  be  helped  into  being 
by  the  light.  And  so  it  is  that  all  goodness 
in  the  hearts  and  lives  of  men  has  this  inti- 
mate and  dependent  relation  upon  light. 

36 


GOODNESS  AND  LIGHT  37 


Goodness  loves  the  light,  having  nothing  to 
fear;  while  evil  seeks  the  darkness,  wishing 
to  hide.  Christ  brings  this  out  very  clearly 
in  His  talk  with  Nicodemus,  when  He  says: 
**And  this  is  the  condemnation,  that  light 
is  come  into  the  world,  and  men  loved  dark- 
ness rather  than  light,  because  their  deeds 
were  evil.  For  every  one  that  doeth  evil 
hateth  the  light,  neither  cometh  to  the 
light,  lest  his  deeds  should  be  reproved. 
But  he  that  doeth  truth  cometh  to  the 
light,  that  his  deeds  may  be  made  manifest, 
that  they  are  wrought  in  God.''  The  man 
that  is  doing  right  is  full  of  courage.  He 
has  nothing  to  fear.  God  is  his  Heavenly 
Father,  and  with  a  feeling  of  childlike  bold- 
ness, conscious  of  that  fatherly  love,  he  finds 
his  refuge  in  God  who  is  light  and  in  whom 
there  is  no  darkness  at  all.  The  man  who 
has  no  secrets  from  God,  who  is  conscious 
of  his  sincerity  and  genuineness,  feels  sure 
of  his  reception  in  God's  presence.  The 
poet  has  given  us  a  beautful  description  of 


38  TEE  WOMLD'S  CHILDHOOD 

the   human   father,   feeling   the   joy   of   his 
child  in  his  arms: 


Beat  upon  mine,  little  heart, 

Beat,  beat,  beat. 
Beat,  upon  mine,  you  are  all  my  own 
From  3'our  dear  deep  eyes  to  your  feet. 
You  are  mine,  all  mine,  my  sweet, 

My  own  little  sweet. 
Sleep  in  my  arms,  my  child,  my  bliss, 
And  I  give  you  this,  and  I  give  you  this. 
And  I  close  your  eyes  with  a  kiss  upon  kiss. 

My  son,  my  own. 
Father,  indeed,  will  watch  you  grow, 
And  gather  you  roses  wherever  you  go, 
And  find  you  white  heather  wherever  it  blow, 

My  own,  my  son. 
So,  beat,  beat  upon  mine,  little  heart. 
Beat,  beat,  beat,  upon  mine. 
You  are  all  my  own,  from  your  deep  blue   eyes   to 

your  feet, 
You  are  mine,  all  mine,  my  sweet, 

My  own  little  sweet. 

So  the  man  or  the  woman  who  feels  that 
the  heart  is  true  and  sincere  in  God's  sight, 
delights  to  rest  on  the  bosom  of  God,  assured 
that  he  or  she  is  armored  and  sheltered  in 
the  light  of  God. 


GOODNESS  AND  LIGHT 


II 


If  we  live  in  the  light,  we  shall  reflect 
the  light  of  heaven  in  our  lives.  You  may- 
have  witnessed  some  of  the  wonders  of  that 
rare  and  marvelous  metal  known  as  radium. 
A  little  particle,  hardly  bigger  than  a  pin^s 
head,  if  placed  behind  a  screen  of  florescent 
metal,  may  be  seen  to  be  sending  out  a 
stream  of  sparks.  These  sparks  give  light 
and  heat,  yet  the  marvel  is  that  the  radium 
itself  loses  no  whit  of  its  energy.  It  is  like 
the  miracle  of  the  burning  bush.  It  emits 
light  and  heat  at  no  apparent  cost  to  itself. 
It  is  imconsumed,  tho  it  is  forever  pouring 
out  chemical  and  electrical  energies.  When 
placed  in  the  coldness  of  an  atmosphere  of 
liquid  air,  even  when  placed  in  the  intense 
frigidity  of  liquid  hydrogen,  it  still  pours 
out  more  light  and  heat.  Now  the  spiritual 
light  which  pours  forth  from  a  genuinely 
good  man  or  a  pure  and  holy  woman  is  like 
that.  If  we  have  Christ  in  us,  the  hope  of 
glory;  if  God  dwells  in  our  hearts  by  faith, 
then  it  makes  no  difference  what  adversities 
and  trials  may  chill  the   circumstances  in 


40  THE  WORLD'S  CHILDHOOD 

which   we    live,    we    shall   pour   forth    this 
spiritual  light  and  warmth. 

The  scientist  will  take  a  common  bit  of 
glass  and  put  it  near  to  a  bit  of  radium,  and 
after  being  there  a  little  while  it  will  re- 
ceive from  the  radium  what  the  scientist 
calls  '^emanation,**  and  for  a  while  after- 
ward this  glass  will  give  out  the  same  sort 
of  light,  heat,  and  energy  that  radium  does. 
Of  course,  it  does  not  last.  It  passes  off, 
but  not  for  some  time.  It  never  comes 
back  unless  the  glass  is  placed  again  where 
the  radium  can  influence  it.  The  scientist 
can  keep  the  glass  radio-active  if  he  puts 
it  near  the  radium  every  now  and  then. 
Otherwise  it  backslides  into  just  a  common 
bit  of  glass,  with  no  powers  of  radiance  at 
all.  How  suggestive  this  is  in  the  spiritual 
world.  There  are  many  radio-active  Chris- 
tians whose  radio-activity  wears  off  very 
quickly  in  the  midst  of  the  worldliness  sur- 
rounding them,  and  sometimes  it  is  never 
renewed.  We  are  the  ^ Might  of  the  world" 
only  as  we  keep  near  to  Christ  and  receive 
the  divine  light,  the  holy  emanation.  It  is 
a  terrible  thing  for  us  to  go  with  darkened 
lives  in  a  world  which  needs  light  so  much, 


GOODNESS  AND  LIGHT  41 

when  we  may  shine  with  the  very  light  of 
God  by  living  in  close  touch  with  Him 


III 


Our  theme  should  teach  us  that  the 
greatest  danger  that  can  come  to  any  man 
or  woman  is  to  have  in  the  heart  and  life 
secret  sins.  The  Word  says,  **  Whoso 
covereth  his  sins  shall  not  prosper/*  and 
the  whole  history  of  mankind  shows  us  that 
there  is  nothing  so  sure  to  work  disaster 
as  a  hidden  sin. 

A  hunter  not  long  ago  saw  an  eagle 
rise  from  the  brow  of  a  hill,  winging  its 
way  with  bold,  strong  flight,  circle  on 
circle,  into  the  depths  of  the  sky.  He 
watched  it  until  it  had  become  but  a  mere 
speck  in  the  far-off  upper  air,  when  sud- 
denly, to  his  great  amazement,  the  great 
bird  grew  larger  and  dropt  down,  down, 
down,  until  it  crashed  on  the  rocks  at  his 
side.  He  ran  to  it,  and  on  examining  the 
bruised  and  battered  body,  he  found  that 
under  the  wing  of  the  eagle  a  little  poisonous 


42  TEE  WORLD'S  CHILDHOOD 

viper  had  fastened  itself.  Eesting  at  noon- 
day, this  small  but  terrible  enemy  had 
taken  refuge  under  its  wing,  and  had  hissed 
death  through  its  veins.  It  was  only  a 
little  viper,  but  it  put  an  end  to  that  bold 
flight  and  was  the  cause  of  that  terrible 
fall.  Friends,  beware  of  little  sins!  Be- 
ware of  secret  sins  that  fasten  to  your  life! 
You  may  think  you  can  trifle  and  dally  with 
them,  but  in  their  bite  there  is  poison 
and  in  their  fang  there  is  death.  We  need 
to  pray  with  the  psalmist,  ^^  Cleanse  thou 
me  from  secret  faults ;  keep  back  thy  servant 
also  from  presumptuous  sins;  let  them  not 
have  dominion  over  me.'' 

But  perhaps  some  one  says,  out  of  a 
troubled  heart,  ^^Such  advice  would  have 
been  good  once,  but  I  have  already  been 
bitten  by  the  viper.  Sin  has  already  poisoned 
my  blood.  The  clutches  of  an  evil  habit 
are  already  upon  me.  How  shall  I  escape 
from  sin  and  be  able  to  stand  again  in 
the  presence  of  God  in  innocence  and 
courage  r'  I  would  to  God  that  every  one 
who  is  conscious  of  sin  would  awaken  to 
ask  that  question  in  all  genuineness  and 
sincerity.      For    unless    there    be    such    an 


GOODNESS  AND  LIGHT  43 

awakening  there  is  a  terrible  reckoning 
coming.  Let  me  presmne,  as  God's  mes- 
senger, to  speak  plainly  to  your  inner  soul 
concerning  that  secret  sin  which  is  gnawing 
at  your  vitals.  You  would  not  have  your 
acquaintances  know  about  it  for  the  world. 
**If  God's  right  hand  were  to  fling  wide 
the  door  that  guards  that., secret  chamber, 
you  would  be  despised  by  those  who  speak 
your  name  with  honor  and  regard.  Oh! 
the  destruction  wrought  by  secret  sins,  which 
no  physician  sees,  nor  surgeon  probes,  nor 
medicine  cures ;  they  eat  on  and  on  until  we 
die,  and  then  we  find  that,  tho  we  may 
have  hidden  them  from  men,  God  saw  them. ' ' 
Are  you  carrying  the  burden  of  a  secret 
sin?  Does  fear  sit  on  your  pillow  when  you 
lie  down  at  night,  and  whisper  of  detection 
in  your  sleeping  ear,  so  that  you  dream  in 
agony,  and  wake  with  shuddering  cries  upon 
your  lips?  My  friend,  God  sees  it  all,  and 
that  sin  so  carefully  hidden  must  face  the 
judgment  day  and  the  light  of  the  great 
white  throne.  But,  thank  God,  there  is  one 
way  you  can  deal  with  it,  and  that  is  yourself 
to  bring  your  sin  to  judgment  at  Jesus' 
feet,  and  have  it  cleansed  from  your  soul. 


44  THE  WOBLD'S  CHILDHOOD 

Only  the  atoning  blood  of  Jesus  Christ  can 
cleanse  the  heart  of  its  hidden  sins. 

At  the  Parliament  of  Eeligions,  at  the 
Columbian  Exposition  in  Chicago,  some 
years  ago,  where  were  gathered  the  repre- 
sentatives of  every  religion  on  the  earth.  Dr. 
Joseph  Cook,  speaking  of  the  certainties 
of  religion,  said,  '^Lady  Macbeth  hath  blood- 
stains on  her  hands,''  and  he  asked  the 
representatives  of  each  religion  what  they 
could  do  to  remove  those  stains.  He  waited 
for  an  answer,  but  all  were  silent.  After 
waiting  until  the  hush  was  like  the  house 
of  death  he  solemnly  exclaimed,  **  Nothing 
but  the  blood  of  Jesus!''  Solemn  as  the 
occasion  was,  the  audience  broke  out  in 
applause,  agreeing  that  there  is  nothing  that 
can  remove  the  stain  of  a  guilty  conscience 
except  the  blood  of  Jesus  Christ.  Christ 
conquered  on  that  open  platform.  Mozoom- 
dar,  the  leader  of  the  new  dispensation  in 
India,  bowed  his  head  and  said  over  and 
over  again,  **The  gentle  Jesus."  Every 
religious  teacher  there  bowed  before  Him,  and 
the  choir  of  a  thousand  trained  voices  sang 
the  Hallelujah  Chorus,  and  the  eyes  of  the 
great  audience  of  reverent  men  and  women 


GOODNESS  AND  LIGHT  45 

were  turned  toward  heaven,  as  tho  they 
could  see  the  hallelujahs  going  up  to  His 
throne,  and  watched  to  see  them  caught  up 
by  the  angels  on  high.  All  glory  to  Christ, 
who  has  the  power  to  cleanse  the  sin  from 
the  darkened  soul  of  man  and  fill  it  with 
the  glorious  light  of  goodness! 


IV 


It  is  here  that  we  find  the  hope  of  the 
world.  We  look  about  us  and  are  often 
tempted  to  discouragement.  There  is  so 
much  darkness,  so  much  misery  and  sin  in 
the  world.  And  then  we  come  back  to  God's 
Book  and  we  find  hope.  Our  hope  is  in  the 
blest  promise  of  God  that  the  true  light  is 
to  shine  on  until  the  whole  world  is  il- 
luminated. The  noblest  privilege  any  man 
or  woman  can  have  is  to  share  in  the  battle 
going  on  among  men  for  a  bright  and  pure 
world.  When  I  ask  you  to  become  a 
Christian  I  am  calling  upon  you  to  become 
a  soldier  in  that  glorious  struggle.  We 
are  not  discouraged  by  the  outlook  of  to- 
day or  to-morrow,  but  in  the  strength  and 


46  THE  WOBLD'S  CHILDHOOD 

light   of   God  we   see   the   day  of   triumph 
coming. 

The  fog  that  is  on  the  world  to-day, 
It  will  be  on  the  world  to-morrow; 

Not  all  the  strength  of  the  sun  can  drive 
His  bright  spear's  furrow. 

Yesterday  and  to-day 

Have  been  heavy  with  care  and  sorrow, 
I  should  faint  if  I  did  not  see 

The  day  that  is  after  to-morrow. 

Hope  in  to-day  there  is  none, 

Nor  from  yesterday  can  I  borrow. 

But  I  think  that  I  feel  the  wind 

Of  the  dawn  that  is  after  to-morrow. 

The  cause  of  the  people  I  serve  to-day 

In  impatience  and  sorrow, 
Once  again  is  defeated,  but  yet  'twill  be  won 

In  the  day  that  is  after  to-morrow. 

And  for  me  with  spirit  elate, 

The  fire  and  the  fog  I  press  through. 

For  heaven  shines  under  the  cloud 
Of  the  day  that  is  after  to-morrow. 


DAEKNESS  AND  LIGHT 

'*And  God  divided  the  light  from  the  darkness." — 
Gen.  1  :-4. 

AND  that  is  what  God  is  trying  to  do 
all  the  while  in  this  world.  He  is 
seeking  to  bring  the  whole  world  into  the 
light,  and  crowd  back  ignorance  and  sin 
and  sorrow  into  *Hhe  outer  darkness.''  That 
is  the  mission  of  Christianity  upon  the 
earth,  and  nothing  that  has  ever  existed  on 
the  earth  has  been  such  a  tremendous  suc- 
cess. We  have  always  lived  with  so  much 
of  the  light  of  Christ  about  us  that  many 
are  misled  and  fail  to  appreciate  how  dark 
the  world  would  be  without  Christ.  Dr. 
Young  J.  Allen,  a  missionary  to  China  for 
the  last  forty  years,  in  a  recent  address  at 
Birmingham,  Alabama,  said  that  he  had 
never  understood  the  Gospel  until  he  went 
to  China,  and  he  proceeded  to  say  that  in 
seeking  for  some  way  whereby  he  might  il- 
lustrate   and    measure   the    Gospel    to    our 

47 


48  TEE  WORLD'S  CHILDHOOD 

American  comprehension  he  selected  this 
illustration:  He  had  often  passed  in  sight 
of  Pike's  Peak.  Pike's  Peak  is  something 
more  than  fourteen  thousand  feet  high,  but 
it  is  not  fourteen  thousand  feet  high  as  we 
see  it.  It  appears  to  be  about  six  thousand 
or  seven  thousand  feet  high.  Why?  Be- 
cause it  is  on  a  great  plateau  or  tableland 
which  is  itself  from  six  to  eight  thousand 
feet  high.  Well,  how  are  you  going  to 
measure,  how  are  you  going  to  see  this 
Pike's  Peak  fourteen  thousand  feet  high? 
You  can  not  do  it.  It  makes  no  such  im- 
pression on  you.  You  go  by  and  say,  ' '  That 
is  Pike's  Peak,  and  they  say  it  is  fourteen 
thousand  feet  high;  and  the  imagination 
looks  up,  but  the  mind  does  not  and  will  not 
go  up  fourteen  thousand  feet.  You  can  not 
reach  up  there.  It  is  not  there.  What  is 
the  matter?  It  is  because  of  this  great 
plateau  that  swallows  it  up.  Now,  Dr.  Allen 
says  if  we  go  from  Pike's  Peak  to  San 
Francisco,  and  on  to  Japan,  we  see  another 
mountain,  one  of  the  most  impressive  in  the 
world,  called  Fujiyama.  There  it  stands. 
There  is  no  plateau.  It  begins  down  at  sea- 
level,   the  waves  of  the  sea  lap  its  very 


DARKNESS  AND  LIGHT  49 

foundation;  but  it  towers  and  towers  and 
towers  until  its  top  literally  kisses  the  sky, 
and  is  seen  one  hundred  and  fifty  miles  at 
sea.  Sea-captains  say  that  sometimes  they 
see  it  gilded  by  the  sun,  and  then  it  seems 
like  a  giant  chrysanthemum,  away  up  there 
in  the  sky.  There  it  stands,  grand  and 
glorious  in  its  form  and  coloring.  The 
Japanese  worship  it;  and  travelers  where- 
ever  they  go  can  not  take  their  eyes  from  it, 
and  are  always  searching  for  it  if  they  lose 
it.  Now  there  is  a  mountain  that  repre- 
sents the  thing  from  the  bottom  to  the  top, 
and  you  see  it  all.  The  missionary  took 
these  two  mountains  to  represent  Chris- 
tianity— the  one  as  we  see  it  over  here,  the 
other  as  they  see  it  over  there  in  the  midst 
of  the  darkness  of  heathenism.  We  who 
were  born  in  a  Christian  country  have 
always  lived  on  this  high  table-land.  We 
have  always  lived  on  this  high  general 
level  of  Christian  civilization,  and  we  have 
no  conception  of  how  high  it  is.  We  have 
no  idea  of  the  pit  out  of  which  our  race  has 
been  dug.  If  we  would  know,  we  must  go 
back  into  history.  If  you  want  to  see  Pike's 
Peak,  you  must  dig  it  out,  and  dig  out  its 


50  THE  WORLD'S  CHILDHOOD 

roots  and  find  the  sea-level,  and  then  stand 
and  look  at  it;  it  would  be  a  glorious  object, 
and  it  would  stand  for  all  that  is  claimed 
for  it.  If  you  want  to  get  at  Christianity 
and  know  its  towering  height,  on  whose  base 
and  on  whose  bosom  you  rest,  you  must  go 
back  into  history  and  dig  it  out. 

When  you  take  that  backward  trail,  hunt- 
ing the  backward  track  of  your  own  race,  our 
own  ancestors,  you  will  go  back  and  back  and 
back  until  you  come  to  a  slave-market  in 
Rome.  And  one  day  St.  Augustine  came 
around  to  look  at  the  slaves  in  the  market, 
and  he  had  enough  of  the  light  of  Christ  in 
his  heart  to  cause  him  to  see  in  these  north- 
ern slaves,  these  painted  savages,  men  and 
women  for  whom  Christ  died,  and  he  longed 
to  have  a  part  in  their  salvation.  As  he 
looked  upon  them  he  declared  that  he  could 
see  ^^the  angel  in  them,''  and  so  the 
Christians  in  Rome  sent  missionaries  up 
into  that  Saxon  land,  and  our  ancestors 
were  converted  to  Christ.  It  is  out  of  a 
darkness  like  that  that  we  were  lifted  up 
into  the  light  and  glory  of  our  modern 
civilization. 


DABKNESS  AND  LIGHT  51 


II 


Now,  what  God  is  seeking  to  do  for  the 
world,  He  is  seeking  to  do  for  every  man 
and  woman  among  us  as  individuals.  No 
man  need  walk  a  dark  path  in  this  world. 
Jesus  says:  **I  am  the  light  of  the  world; 
he  that  followeth  me  shall  not  walk  in  dark- 
ness, but  shall  have  the  light  of  life.'' 

In  his  poem,  *^ Merlin  and  the  Gleam,'' 
Tennyson  is  supposed  to  have  written  out  of 
his  heart  a  comment  on  his  own  life.  It 
recalls  his  youth,  his  manhood,  his  early 
poems,  the  great  work  which  employed  his 
thoughts  in  maturer  years,  and  then  turns 
toward  the  future  and  finds  that  the  ideal 
which  has  lighted  him  from  the  start  is 
still  lighting  him  to  the  finish.  From  youth 
to  old  age  he  has  followed  the  Gleam,  and 
he  is  now  following  it  home  to  heaven. 

There  is  in  the  poem  something  more  than 
an  autobiography  of  Tennyson.  There  is 
in  it  light  upon  all  life  and  upon  every 
struggle  for  the  highest  and  best  things. 
There  are  young  men  who  hear  me,  and 
young  women,  too,  whose  hearts  have  been 


52  THE  WOELD'S  CHILDHOOD 

stirred  with  noble  longings  and  holy  dreams 
to  hold  themselves  to  the  highest  living  and 
the  truest  ambitions,  who  might  well  sing 
with  the  poet: 

Mighty  the  Wizard 
Who  found  me  at  sunrise 
Sleeping,  and  woke  me 
And  learned  me  Magic ! 
Great  the  Master, 
And  sweet  the  Magic, 
When  over  the  valley. 
In  early  summers, 
Over  the  mountain, 
On  human  faces, 
And  all  around  me. 
Moving  to  melody, 
Floated  the  Gleam. 

So  you  remember  when  your  Master,  the 
divine  Christ,  awoke  in  you  a  longing  for 
holy  living,  for  beautiful  thoughts  and 
achievements,  for  generous  self-sacrifice  and 
fellowship,  and  with  a  new  joy  and  a  thrill 
of  holy  ambition  unknown  before  you  fol- 
lowed the  gleam  of  this  blest  Light  out  to 
the  struggle  of  life. 

But  there  came  days  of  shadow  and  of 
trial,  and  out  of  your  own  experience  you 


DABKNESS  AND  LIOET  53 

might  still  join  with  the  poet  when  he 
sings: 

Once  at  the  croak  of  a  Raven  who  crost  it, 
A  barbarous  people, 
Blind  to  the  magic 
And  deaf  to  the  melody. 
Snarl 'd  at  and  curst  me, 
A  demon  vext  me, 
The  light  retreated, 
The  landskip  darken 'd. 
The  melody  deaden 'd 
The  Master  whispered, 
'^Follow  the  Gleam.'' 

And  if  yon  harkened  to  that  whisper  of 
the  Master,  you  followed  the  gleam  of  the 
heavenly  light  through  temptations  and 
trials,  and  are  all  the  stronger  for  them  to- 
day. But  if  you  closed  your  ears  to  the 
whisper  of  the  Master,  and  lost  sight  of 
the  divine  Gleam,  then  your  heart  is  heavy 
and  sad.  If  you  are  in  such  a  place  now, 
I  beg  you  harken  to  the  whisper  of  the 
Christ,  and  no  matter  how  many  demons 
snarl  or  tempt,  follow  the  Gleam,  and  you 
shall  walk  safely.  One  of  the  worst  lies  the 
devil  ever  tells  us  when  we  are  in  the 
midst  of  some  dark  place  of  temptation,  is 


64  THE  WORLD'S  CHILDHOOD 

that  the  Christian  life  is  all  like  that,  that 
it  is  always  gloomy  and  heavy*  and  sad. 
Nothing  can  be  more  false.  In  spite  of 
the  struggles  against  evil  and  sin,  in  or- 
der to  maintain  the  Christian  character, 
the  Christian  life  is  the  sweetest  and  hap- 
piest life  in  the  world.  See  how  the  poet 
portrays  it  in  his  own  experience: 

Then  to  the  melody, 

Over  a  wilderness 

Gliding,  and  glancing  at 

Elf  of  the  woodland, 

Gnome  of  the  cavern. 

Griffin  and  Giant, 

And  dancing  of  Fairies 

In  desolate  hollows, 

And  wraiths  of  the  mountain. 

And  rolling  of  dragons 

By  warble  of  water, 

Or  cataract  music. 

Of  falling  torrents, 

Flitted  the  Gleam. 

« 

Down  from  the  mountain 

And  over  the  level, 

And  streaming  and  shining  on 

Silent  river. 

Silvery  willow, 

Pasture  and  plowland, 


DARKNESS  AND  LIGHT  55 

Innocent  maidens, 
Garrulous  children, 
Homestead  and  harvest, 
Reaper  and  gleaner. 
And  rough-ruddy  faces 
Of  lowly  labor, 
Slided  the  Gleam. 

And  so  it  may  be  with  you.  For  every 
experience  with  awakening  ravens  and 
demons  of  temptation  and  trial,  there  shall 
be  multiplied  experiences  when  the  path 
shall  be  by  the  shining  river,  through  the 
fragrant  orchards  and  gardens,  and  in 
joyous  fellowship  with  the  good  and  true. 

And  he  who  follows  the  heavenly  light 
finds  that  even  the  dark  valley  and  the 
shadow  of  death  are  illuminated  and  glorified 
by  it.    How  splendidly  Tennyson  says; 

And  broader  and  brighter 
The  Gleam  flying  onward. 
Wed  to  the  melody. 
Sang  thro^  the  world; 
And  slower  and  fainter, 
Old  and  weary, 
But  eager  to  follow, 
I  saw,  whenever 
In  passing  it  glanced  upon 


56  TEE  WORLD'S  CUILVHOOD 

Hamlet  or  city, 
That  under  the  Crosses 
The  dead  man's  garden, 
The  mortal   hillock, 
Would  break  into  blossom; 

And  so  to  the  land's 

Last  limit  I  came. 

I  can  no  longer, 

But  die  rejoicing, 

For  thro '  the  Magic 

Of  Him  the  Mighty, 

Who  taught  me  in  childhood, 

There  on  the  border 

Of  boundless  Ocean, 

And  all  but  in  Heaven 

Hovers  the  Gleam. 


I  went  one  day  to  see  a  white-haired  old 
man  who  had  followed  the  Gleam  for  many 
years,  and  was  only  waiting  for  his  transfer 
to  the  world  beyond,  and  I  found  in  him  the 
same  precious  hope  and  faith.  There  was 
no  shadow  on  his  brow;  there  was  no  fear 
in  his  heart.  He  felt  that  he  was  walking  in. 
the  valley  of  death,  but  the  heavenly  Gleam 
lighted  it  up,  and  he  did  not  walk  in  dark- 
ness. 

But  I  must  not  fail  in  my  message  to  you 


DARKNESS  AND  LIGHT  57 

who  have  not  get  given  yourself  over  to 
the  divine  Guide.  Christ,  who  is  **the 
Light  of  the  world,''  will  be,  if  you  will 
open  your  heart  and  life  to  Him,  the 
inspiration,  the  comfort,  and  the  guide  to 
your  personal  life.  No  earthly  wisdom  is 
sufficient  to  guide  the  immortal  soul.  Only 
the  heavenly  light,  only  the  heart  of  our 
divine  Lord,  is  tender  enough  and  wise 
enough  to  give  us  the  inspiration  and  the 
direction  that  each  of  us  needs.  Listen 
again  to  the  poet  as  he  concludes  his  song 
with  this  inspiring  word  of  exhortation.  If 
it  had  been  written  personally  for  your  ear 
and  your  eye,  it  could  not  have  been  more 
truly  fitted  to  the  needs  of  your  soul : 

Not  of  the  sunlight, 
Not  of  the  moonlight, 
Not  of  the  starlight ! 
O  young  Mariner, 
Down  to  the  haven. 
Call  your  companions, 
Launch  your  vessel 
And  crowd  your  canvas, 
And,  ere  it  vanishes 
Over  the  margin, 
After  it,  follow  it. 
Follow  the  Gleam. 


68  THE  WORLD'S  CHILDHOOD 

The  Christ  gleam  falls  across  your  path 
now,  and  there  is  light  enough  if  you  will  fol- 
low it  to  lead  you  to  forgiveness  and  peace. 
Nothing  else  can  save  you  from  the  darkness 
which  comes  to  all  who  have  sinned.  Not 
long  ago,  in  New  York,  a  man  died  the 
death  of  a  suicide,  who  had  in  his  possession 
up  to  the  time  of  his  death  many  millions 
of  dollars.  He  made  his  money  in  a  shame- 
ful way,  and  he  could  not  bear  the  public 
censure.  He  had  traded  his  soul  for  his 
wealth,  and  after  he  got  it  had  no  peace 
with  it,  because  in  getting  it  he  had  lost 
his  soul.  If  that  man  could  have  ex- 
changed all  his  millions  for  a  light,  cheerful 
heart,  that  looked  into  the  future  with 
gladness,  what  a  wonderful  bargain  it  would 
have  been.  But  he  had  sinned  against  his 
own  soul.  He  had  turned  his  face  away 
from  the  light  and  there  could  only  be  one 
ending,  and  that  was  the  impenetrable  gloom 
of  the  ^^ outer  darkness.'^  God  save  any 
one  of  you  from  such  a  tragedy !  I  give  you 
the  blest  invitation  of  Christ  to  come  to 
the  light,  and  in  the  sweet  light  that  shines 
upon  the  mercy  seat  find  the  forgiveness  of 
your  sins  and  the  hope  of  eternal  life. 


MAN'S  GLORIOUS  DAY 

"And  God  called  the  light  day."— Gen.  1:5. 

THERE  is  nothing  more  glorious  in  the 
universe  than  the  day.  No  other 
miracle  is  so  marvelous  as  this.  God  uses 
it  as  a  challenge  against  unbelief  in  spiritual 
things.  Through  the  mouth  of  Jeremiah 
He  says,  **Thus  saith  the  Lord:  If  ye  can 
break  my  covenant  of  the  day  .  .  .  . 
Then  may  also  my  covenant  be  broken  with 
David  my  servant.''  Did  you  ever  stop 
to  think  what  a  miracle  it  is  to  make  the 
day,  and  cause  its  return  at  the  appropriate 
time  through  the  centuries  !  George  Lansing 
Taylor  once  made  a  study  of  the  mechanical 
enginery  that  would  be  necessary  to  make 
the  day,  and  he  discovered  that  to  run  this 
massive  sphere,  eight  thousand  miles  in 
diameter,  by  the  ratio  of  size  of  shaft  to 
size  of  paddle-wheel  on  a  large  steamboat, 
the  earth  must  be  slung  on  a  steel  shaft  two 
hundred  and  fifty  miles  in  diameter  and  ten 
thousand  miles  long.  It  must  be  driven  by 
an  engine  whose  cylinder  should  measure 
twelve  hundred  miles  bore  and  two  thousand 

59 


60  THE  WORLD'S  CHILDHOOD 

miles  stroke,  having  a  piston-rod  one  hun- 
dred miles  thick,  and  two  thousand  five 
hundred  miles  long,  working  by  a  con- 
necting-rod three  thousand  miles  long  on 
a  crank  of  one  thousand  miles  arm,  with 
a  wrist  two  hundred  miles  long  and  fifty- 
miles  thick.  The  piston  of  this  engine  will 
make  but  one  revolution  daily;  but  to  do 
that  it  will  travel  four  thousand  miles,  at 
an  average  velocity  of  nearly  three  miles  a 
minute.  The  working  capacity  of  this  engine 
will  be  about  fourteen  thousand  million  horse- 
power. It  must  be  controlled  by  an  auto- 
matic governor  of  infallible  accuracy,  and 
supplied  with  inexhaustible  fuel  and  oil; 
and  so  run  on  day  and  night,  never  starting  a 
bolt,  nor  heating  a  journal,  nor  wearing  out 
a  box,  century  after  century.  The  iron 
bed-frame  for  this  machine  must  be  ten 
thousand  miles  square  and  four  thousand 
miles  high,  and  not  tremble  a  hair  under 
the  stroke  that  drives  the  equatorial  rim 
of  this  flying-wheel  globe  up  to  a  steady 
velocity  of  seventeen  and  one-half  miles  a 
minute,  twenty  times  the  velocity  of  a 
flying  express-train!  Who  will  take  the 
contract    to    build    and    run    this    engine? 


MAN'S  GLORIOUS  DAY  61 

Who'll  furnish  a  place  where  it  may  stand? 
Who'll  build  the  masonry  underpinning  for 
that  vast  bed-frame?  But  it  can  have  no 
underpinning.  The  vast  mass  must  fly 
through  space  in  the  earth's  orbit  around  the 
sun,  with  a  velocity  of  more  than  eleven 
hundred  miles  a  minute.  The  Armstrong 
one-hundred-ton  steel  rifle  sends  its  two- 
thousand-pound  steel  projectile  at  the  rate 
of  sixteen  hundred  feet  per  second  clean 
through  a  solid  wrought-iron  plate  twenty- 
two  inches  thick.  But  God  fires  this  globe, 
eight  thousand  miles  in  diameter,  through 
space  with  sixty  and  one-half  times  the 
velocity  of  the  monster  projectile,  and  two 
thousand  times  the  velocity  of  an  express- 
train.  And  our  engine  that  gives  it  its  day- 
and-night  rotation  must  fly  with  it  at  that 
speed,  and  never  lose  a  stroke! 

Now,  it  was  our  God  who  built  this  flying- 
machine,  and  set  it  at  work  revolving  out  our 
day  and  night,  and  flashing  the  rosy  miracle 
of  sunrise  and  sunset  around  the  world! 
And  it  was  that  same  God  who  also  framed 
the  plan  of  our  redemption  through  Jesus 
Christ,  and  set  up  His  kingdom  on  the 
earth;  and  He  says  to  the  caviler  to-day: 


62  TEE  WOULD 'S  CHILDHOOD 

^^When  you  can  stop  the  one,  you  can  stop 
the  other!  Just  try  your  hand  on  my  day- 
and-night  engine  first,  and  then  see  about 
Christianity. ' ' 

Our  life  in  this  world  has  been  very 
commonly  compared  to  the  natural  day. 
There  is  an  old  common-law  proverb  which 
says  that,  ^^  Every  man  has  his  day  in 
court.''  So  each  of  us  is  granted  his  day 
of  human  life,  and  where  our  lives  run  the 
normal,  natural  course  the  figure  of  the 
day  is  very  striking.  Our  birth  is  like  the 
sunrise.  Childhood  is  our  morning,  and  in 
youth  the  sun  climbs  high  in  the  heavens. 
High-noon  is  middle  age.  As  we  grow 
older  the  sun  descends  toward  the  West, 
and  death  is  the  sunset  of  man's  brief  but 
splendid  day.  This  illustration  ought  to  be 
full  of  teaching  for  every  one  of  us. 


The  thought  of  life  as  a  day  should  be  to 
us  an  inspiration  to  activity.  It  is  swiftly 
passing.  On  John  Euskin's  desk  he  kept 
a  paper-weight  made  of  a  beautiful  block 
of  chalcedony.    Carved  upon  it  was  the  word 


MAN'S  GLOEIOUS  DAY  63 

'^ To-day.'^  In  Euskin^s  thought  every  day 
was  a  king  and  should  be  obeyed  to  the  ut- 
most limit  while  it  lasted.  So  Christ's  com- 
mand comes  to  us,  ^^Son,  go  work  to-day  in 
my  vineyard.''  There  is  nothing  said  about 
to-morrow.  To-day  is  the  all-important  hour 
of  duty  for  every  one  of  us.  The  question 
that  should  come  to  us  every  evening  is  not 
what  we  are  dreaming  about  doing  in  some 
future  time,  but  what  have  we  accomplished 
to-day.  There  are  many  people  who  excuse 
themselves  for  present  failures  because  of 
vague  and  hazy  dreams  of  what  they  ex- 
pect to  do  in  some  indefinite  future.  Nothing 
is  more  insidious  than  such  a  habit  as  that. 
Some  of  you  are  picturing  to  yourselves  how 
when  you  are  old  you  are  going  to  be  a  noble, 
benevolent,  gentle-hearted  Christian  man,  or 
you  are  going  to  be  a  sweet-spirited,  pure- 
souled  Christian  woman.  You  think  of  the 
noblest  man  or  woman  you  know,  one  that 
fascinates  you  and  charms  you  by  the 
chastened  beauty  and  Christlikeness  of 
personality,  and  you  dream  that  you  are 
going  to  be  like  that.  But  to-day  you  are 
not  a  Christian.  To-day  you  are  living 
without   God,   and   with   but  little   care   of 


64  THE  WOBLB'S  CHILDHOOD 

your  spirit  or  for  the  culture  of  your  soul. 
Do  not  be  deceived.  If'  the  future  is  to  be 
beautiful  and  splendid,  to-day  must  be  pre- 
paring for  it.  Some  one  sings  of  just  such 
a  danger  as  yours : 

We  shall  do  much  in  the  years  to  come, 

But  what  have  we  done  to-day? 
We  shall  give  our  gold  in  a  princely  sum, 

But  what  did  we  give  to-day? 
We  shall  lift  the  heart  and  dry  the  tear, 
We  shall  plant  a  hope  in  the  place  of  fear, 
We  shall  speak  the  words  of  love  and  cheer, 
But  what  did  we  speak  to-day? 

We  shall  be  so  kind  in  the  after  while, 

But  what  have  we  been  to-day? 
We  shall  bring  to  each  lonely  life  a  smile, 

But  what  have  we  brought  to-day? 
We  shall  give  to  truth  a  grander  birth, 
And  to  steadfast  faith  a  deeper  worth, 
We  shall  feed  the  hungering  souls  of  earth ; 
But  wjiom  have  we  fed  to-day? 

We  shall  reap  such  joys  in  the  by  and  by, 
But  what  have  we  sown  to-day? 

We  shall  build  us  mansions  in  the  sky, 
But  what  have  we  built  to-day? 

'Tis  sweet  in  idle  dreams  to  bask, 

But  here  and  now,  do  we  our  task? 

Yes,  this  is  the  thing  our  souls  must  ask. 
What  have  we  done  to-day? 


MAN'S  GLORIOUS  DAY  65 


II 


The  thought  of  life  as  a  day  ought  to  be 
a  constant  warning  against  carelessness  of 
life.  We  can  not  go  back  over  the  course. 
You  never  can  go  back  from  eleven  o^clock 
in  the  morning  to  nine  o'clock  and  accept 
any  privilege  or  perform  any  duty  that  be- 
longs exclusively  to  that  earlier  hour.  We 
never  can  go  back  and  come  again  over  the 
course  of  childhood  or  youth  or  middle  age 
after  once  we  have  passed  it.  The  doors  are 
forever  swinging  shut  behind  us  as  we  pro- 
ceed. If  we  could  keep  in  our  hearts  and 
minds  a  clear  perception  of  this  great  fact, 
it  would  often  give  us  pause.  The  careless 
word  that  wounded  the  heart  of  a  friend ;  the 
unkind  criticism  that  made  the  burden 
heavier  to  some  weary  shoulder;  the  blunt 
speech  that  was  like  a  blow  in  the  face  to 
a  man  or  a  woman  already  discouraged;  the 
harsh  refusal  that  disheartened  the  budding 
hope  of  a  child,  how  differently  we  would 
have  spoken  if  we  could  have  remembered 
clearly  that  we  never  could  take  it  back, 
never   could   go   back   and   change   it,   but 


66  THE  WOBLD'S  CHILDHOOD 

must  always  let  it  stand  there,  impossible 
to  redeem.  Friend,  you  can  only  go  this 
way  but  once.  Let  us  be  careful  what  we  do. 
How  well  I  remember  a  man,  whom  many 
other  people  envied,  saying  to  me  one  day, 
with  the  scalding  tears  running  down  his 
cheeks:  ^'I  would  give  half  the  years  that 
are  still  left  to  me,  even  tho  it  were  God's 
will  I  should  live  to  be  a  hundred,  if  I 
could  go  back  and  change  just  one  year  of 
my  life  and  make  the  record  different !'' 
But  he  could  not  go  back.  The  day  of  life 
went  steadily  on  toward  the  sunset. 


I ''There  is  a  nest  of  thrushes  in  the  glen; 
V,    When  we  come  back  we  '11  see  the  glad  young  things, ' ' 
He  said.     We  came  not  by  that  way  again; 
And  time  and  thrushes  fare  on  eager  wings ! 


''Yon  rose,^^  she  smiled.     "But  no;  when  we  return, 
I  '11  pluck  it  then. ' '     'Twas  on  a  summer  day. 

The  ashes  of  the  rose  in  autumn's  urn 
Lie  hidden  well.    We  came  not  back  that  way. 

We  do  not  pass  the  selfsame  way  again, 
Or,  passing  by  that  way,  no  thing  we  find 

As  it  before  had  been;  but  dearth  or  stain 
Hath  come  upon  it,  or  the  wasteful  wind. 


MAN'S  GLORIOUS  DAT  87 

The  very  earth  is  envious,  and  her  arms 
Reach  for  the  beauty  that  detained  our  eyes; 

Yea,  it  is  lost  beyond  the  aid  of  charms 
If,  once  within  our  grasp,  we  leave  the  prize. 

Thou  traveler  to  the  unknown  ocean^s  brink. 
Through  life's  fair  fields,  say  not,  ^* Another  day 

This  joy  I'll  prove";  for  never,  as  I  think. 
Never  shall  we  come  this  selfsame  way. 


Ill 


Our  theme  should  teach  us  that  there  is 
no  room  for  despair  in  the  sorrows  and 
trials  of  life  provided  we  trust  God,  and  are 
seeking  to  do  His  will,  since  the  day  is 
constantly  passing  and  with  it  all  the  hard 
experiences  which  trouble  us  and  try  us. 
Some  of  you  are  carrying  heavy  loads. 
Your  hearts  are  tender  with  grief.  You 
can  not  see  the  way  out,  but  the  clouds  will 
pass  with  the  fleeting  hour.  They  are  not 
for  always.  Some  of  you  are  having  a  con- 
stant struggle  in  your  wilderness  of  tempta- 
tion, trying  to  be  good.  Do  not  lose  heart. 
Trust  God!  It  is  not  forever.  It  is  all 
in  the  day's  work.    It  will  pass,  and  as  the 


68  THE  WOBLD'S  CHILDHOOD 

angels  came  and  comforted  Jesus  after  His 
temptation,  so  they  will  comfort  you.  I  re- 
member an  old  story  told  in  song  which 
interested  me  in  my  boyhood,  crystallizing 
around  the  sentence  **Even  this  shall  pass 
away/'    The  story- telling  poet  says; 


Once  in  Persia  reigned  a  king 
Who  upon  his  signet-ring 
Graved  a  maxim  true  and  wise, 
Which,  if  held  before  his  eyes, 
Gave  him  counsel  at  a  glance 
Fit  for  every  change  and  chance, 
Solemn  words,  and  these  are  they: 
**Even  this  shall  pass  away.*' 

Trains  of  camels  through  the  sand 
Brought  him  gems  from  Samarcand ; 
Fleets  of  galleys  through  the  seas 
Brought  him  pearls  to  match  with  these. 
But  he  counted  not  his  gain 
Treasures  of  the  mine  or  main; 
''What  is  wealth?'*  the  king  would  say; 
' '  Even  this  shall  pass  away. ' ' 

In  the  revels  of  his  court, 
At  the  zenith  of  the  sport. 
When  the  palms  of  all  his  guests 
Burned  with  clapping  at  his  jests. 


MAN'S  GLORIOUS  DAY 

He,  amid  his  figs  and  wine, 
Cried,  **0h,  loving  friends  of  mine! 
Pleasures  come,  but  not  to  stay; 
*Even  this  shall  pass  away.'  " 

Fighting  on  a  furious  field. 
Once  a  javelin  pierced  his  shield, 
Soldiers,  with  a  loud  lament, 
Bore  him  bleeding  to  his  tent. 
Groaning  from  his  tortured  side, 
^*Pain  is  hard  to  bear,'*  he  cried, 
*^But  with  patience,  day  by  day, 
*Even  this  shall  pass  away.'  " 

Towering  in  the  public  square. 
Twenty  cubits  in  the  air. 
Rose  his  statue  carved  in  stone. 
Then  the  king,  disguised,  unknown. 
Stood  before  his  sculptured  name. 
Musing  meekly,  ^'What  is  fame? 
Fame  is  but  a  slow  decay — 
*Even  this  shall  pass  away.'  " 

Struck  with  palsy,  sere  and  old. 
Waiting  at  the  Gates  of  Gold, 
Said  he  with  his  dying  breath, 
**Life  is  done,  but  what  is  death?" 
Then,  in  answer  to  the  king. 
Fell  a  sunbeam  on  his  ring, 
Showing,  by  a  heavenly  ray, 
'*Even  this  shall  pass  away." 


THE  TEEASURES  OF  NIGHT 

'*And  the  darkness  He  called  Night." — Gen.  1:  5. 

IN  all  languages  night  is  the  symbol  for 
gloom  and  suffering.  An  allegory  in  the 
old  Jewish  Talmud  teaches  that  the  demons 
are  all  children  of  four  daughters  of  Night 
— Lilith,  Naama,  Agrath,  and  Mahalath. 
Their  assembling-place  was  on  Mount  Nish- 
pah,  the  Mount  of  Twilight  toward  the 
north.  King  Solomon  ruled  them  all  and 
made  them  do  his  pleasure.  These  four 
daughters  of  the  night,  the  mothers  of  the 
demons,  and  sources  of  all  the  vices  that 
degrade  and  devastate  the  nature  of  man, 
were  described  as  follows:  Lilith  is  ig- 
norance, the  mortal  foe  of  childhood  and  of 
all  instruction.  Naama  is  false  pleasure,  the 
mortal  foe  of  all  self-discipline,  the  demon- 
mother  of  the  wide-spread  shame  and  horri- 
ble misery  caused  by  every  form  of  drink 
and  impurity.  Agrath  is  she  who  fills  the 
world  with  foul  fiction  and  every  form  of 
corrupting     literature.       Mahalath     is     the 

70 


THE  TREASURES  OF  NIGHT  71 

mortal  foe  of  pure  religion  and  undefiled, 
the  demon-mother  of  superstition  and  phar- 
isaism,  and  of  every  form  of  false  religion. 
The  offspring  of  these  demon-mothers  meet 
on  the  dark  and  dreary  mountains  and  go 
to  the  far  north — that  is,  to  the  region  of 
death  and  ruin.  But  Solomon  can  subdue 
them  and  make  them  serve  his  will.  Canon 
Farrar  says  that  Christianity  with  the 
help  of  God's  grace  can  overcome  these 
daughters  of  the  night;  can  expel  the  curse 
of  Lilith,  or  Ignorance,  by  a  large  and 
loving  Christian  education;  it  can  make 
Naama,  or  Pleasure,  the  handmaid  not  of 
pollution,  but  of  innocence  and  noble  self- 
control  ;  it  can  make  Agrath,  Literature  and 
Art,  the  minister  to  purity  and  holiness;  it 
can  purge  Mahalath,  or  False  Religion,  from 
formalism  and  hollowness  and  help  her  to 
bring  forth  the  fruits  of  the  Spirit  which 
grow  on  the  tree  of  life  in  the  Paradise  of 
God.  It  can  destroy  the  offspring  of  night 
and  fill  the  world  with  the  **  children  of  the 
day." 

But  there  is  another  view  in  regard  to 
night,  and  upon  that  path  I  wish  to  lead  our 
thoughts  at  this  time.     The  purpose  of  the 


72  THE  WOBLD'S  CHILDHOOD 

night  is  as  benevolent  and  loving  on  the  part 
of  God  as  that  of  the  day.  I  think  it  will  do 
us  good  to  study  the  treasures  of  the  night. 
David  found  that  *  *  Night  unto  night  showeth 
knowledge.'*  And  I  think  we  shall  find 
that  to  be  true. 


Night  recalls  us  to  a  keen  sense  of  the 
individuality  of  our  own  souls,  and  their 
responsibility  to  God,  In  these  days  more 
than  ever  we  live  in  a  crowd.  In  the  rush 
and  stress  of  life,  when  the  street  is  full  of 
noise,  and  the  telephone-bell  rings  in  your 
ear,  or  messengers  call  you  here  and  there, 
it  is  easy  to  forget  the  solemn  responsibility 
which  is  on  you  for  your  own  personality. 
We  come  to  feel  that  somehow  we  are  a  part 
of  the  town,  a  part  of  a  class,  a  part  of 
civilization,  and  we  count  ourselves  in  with 
the  great  crowd;  but  night  singles  us  out 
from  the  crowd,  and  in  that  is  a  great  bless- 
ing. Cecil  Wright  well  says  that  a  place 
in  life  must  be  kept  for  intervals  of  quiet, 
stolen    from    the    noise    of    life,    otherwise 


THE  TBEASUUES  OF  NIGHT  73 

spirituality  can  not  thrive.  For  spiritual 
things  to  be  real  a  man  must  live  in  the 
midst  of  them.  We  grow  skeptical  of  the 
existence  of  that  which  does  not  touch  us. 
It  is  a  well-known  fact  that  by  excessive 
devotion  to  one  subject  we  lose  the  power 
to  appreciate  another.  Charles  Darwin  once 
wrote:  ^*Up  to  the  age  of  thirty  all  poetry 
gave  me  pleasure;  Shakespeare  was  my  de- 
light; painting  also,  and  music.  Now  for 
some  years  past  I  can  not  endure  reading 
a  line  of  poetry ;  Shakespeare  bores  and  dis- 
gusts me;  I  have  lost  my  taste  for  painting 
and  for  music.''  The  explanation  was  that 
the  great  naturalist  had  concentrated  himself 
completely  on  the  earth-worm  and  the 
monkey.  With  lifelong  persistency  he  gave 
his  heart  and  brain  to  certain  studies.  His 
every  faculty  was  absorbed  and  his  every 
power  riveted  on  those  studies.  And  all 
the  while  the  poetic  faculties  of  the  man 
were  becoming  more  and  more  atrophied, 
benumbed,  blunted.  He  had  no  quarrel  with 
Shakespeare,  or  Beethoven,  but  all  un- 
wittingly he  had  closed  the  door  against 
them.  It  is  so  still.  Men  are  so  absorbed 
in  the  narrow  and  noisy  present  that  they 


74  THE  WOBLD'S  CHILDHOOD 

blink  when  you  talk  to  them  of  the  other 
world.  None  of  us  appreciate  how  much  the 
night  with  its  power  to  recall  us  to  our  in- 
dividuality and  our  personal  responsibility 
to  God  saves  us  from  being  still  more  terri- 
bly influenced  by  the  secular  and  material 
influences  which  so  absorb  the  busy  hours 
of  the  day.  The  sad  side  of  it  is  that 
such  multitudes  turn  the  night  into  day  for 
sensual  and  giddy  pleasure  even  more  dis- 
tracting than  the  hours  of  business.  But 
he  or  she  is  wise  who  permits  the  voice  of 
the  night  to  speak  of  the  deeper  things  of  the 
soul. 


II 


The  night  is  rich  in  teaching  the  lesson 
of  our  dependence  upon  God.  If  man  could 
work  on  forever,  or  a  limited  forever,  with- 
out recuperation,  he  would  become  utterly 
indifferent  to  the  fact  that  he  gets  all  his 
strength  from  God.  In  prosperity  men  often 
become  proud  and  self-sufficient,  and  are 
only  brought  to  wisdom  and  humility  and 
proper  thoughts  of  God  by  disasters  which 
reveal  to  them  their  own  weakness  and  re- 


TEE  TBEASUBES  OF  NIOHT  75 

call  them  to  a  sense  of  dependence  upon 
God  for  all  the  blessings  of  life.  Horace 
Bushnell,  in  his  book  on  the  *^  Moral  Uses  of 
Dark  Things/'  brings  out  very  strikingly 
this  lesson  in  regard  to  night  and  sleep.  He 
shows  that  if  a  man  were  always  fresh  and 
strong,  incapable  of  exhaustion  as  the  spring 
of  a  watch,  moral  ideas  would  seldom  get 
near  enough  to  be  felt.  But  after  twelve  or 
sixteen  hours  the  man  who  rose  in  the 
morning  full  of  might,  as  if  a  young 
eternity  were  in  him,  begins  to  flag;  his 
nervous  energy  is  spent;  his  limbs  are 
heavy;  his  motions  want  spirit  and  pre- 
cision. If  he  tries,  for  some  particular 
reason,  to  hold  on  over  whole  days,  his 
hands  grow  weaker,  his  eyelids  more  heavy, 
till,  at  length,  he  is  obliged  to  resign  himself 
to  his  fate,  and  drops,  a  merely  unconscious 
lump,  on  the  couch  of  the  sleeper.  Every 
day  this  lesson  of  frailty  is  given  him.  The 
grass  which  is  cut  down  by  the  mower's 
scythe  does  not  sooner  wither  and  dry  up 
than  the  strength  of  the  mower  himself.  We 
take  our  very  capacity  thus  in  little  loans 
of  only  a  few  hours,  and  when  the  time 
has  gone,   night  calls  us   back  into   God's 


76  THE  WORLD'S  CHILDHOOD 

bosom  again  to  be  recruited*  It  is  strange 
that  the  miracle  of  every  night  does  not 
reclaim  men  from  sin  altogether,  but  were  it 
not  for  this  wise  and  morally  beautiful  ar- 
rangement men  would  become  like  devils. 

The  philosopher  reasons  that  having  only 
this  short  run  of  power,  we  are  humbled  to 
a  softer  key.  We  do  not  feel  or  act  as  we 
should  if  we  could  rush  on  our  way  and 
have  our  sin  as  a  law  of  ceaseless  momentum 
for  the  whole  period  of  our  life.  We  are 
like  an  engine  that  is  started  off  on  the 
track  by  itself;  the  fuel  and  water  will  soon 
be  exhausted,  and  then  it  must  stop.  But 
if  it  could  go  on  without  fuel  and  water,  it 
would  whirl  itself  across  a  continent  and 
pitch  itself  into  the  sea.  So,  if,  being  loose 
in  evil,  we  could  rush  interminably  on, 
never  to  be  spent  or  recruited  by  night  or 
sleep,  our  bad  momentum  would  itself  drive 
us  to  eternal  ruin.  In  our  self-will  we 
should  be  hard  beyond  conception;  our  very 
ambitions  and  purposes  would  fly,  bullet- 
wise,  at  their  mark;  consideration,  concilia- 
tion, candor,  patience,  would  all  be  driven  4 
out  of  the  world  by  the  remorseless  per- 
sistency of  our  habit.    We  have  great  rea- 


TEE  TBEASUBES  OF  NIGHT  77 

son  to  thank  God  that  it  is  not  so.  Night 
intervenes  every  few  honrs  and  brings  us 
to  nothingness,  saving  us  from  becoming 
demons,  and  keeping  us  men  and  women  that 
have  to  go  to  sleep  as  children  do.  In  this 
way  we  are  softened  and  gentled  in  feeling. 
Night  makes  it  impossible  that  we  shall  not 
sometimes  be  tender.  Eeason  will  some- 
times get  a  chance  to  speak.  God's  Spirit 
will  have  His  opportunity  of  whispering  to 
the  soul.  The  tremendous  passion  for  gain, 
bad  as  it  is,  would  be  infinitely  worse  if  it 
were  not  that  the  spell  it  works  is  broken 
every  few  hours  by  the  counter-spell  of 
night  and  sleep.  God  has  set  the  sun  and 
the  moon  and  the  stars  running  as  a  mill 
against  that  dangerous  worldliness  which 
drowns  men  in  perdition.  He  buries  the 
world  in  darkness  that  we  may  not  see  it. 
He  takes  the  soul  off  into  a  world  of  un- 
consciousness to  break  up  its  bad  enchant- 
ment. He  palsies  the  hand  to  make  it  let 
go,  palsies  even  the  brain  to  stifle  its  in- 
fatuation. 

In  the  same  way  God  seeks  to  stifle 
jealousy  and  envy  and  hatred,  and  to  destroy 
every  wicked  passion.     If  it  were  not  for 


78  TEE  WOELD'S  CHILDHOOD 

this,  our  malignities  would  burn  us  up.  But 
night  comes  on  like  the  truce  of  God.  No 
hatred  burns  in  the  sleeping  man  who  is 
given  over  to  the  spell  of  night.  ^^No  re- 
venge or  jealousy  lowers  on  his  face  in  that 
soft  hour  of  oblivion.  If  he  went  to  bed 
heated  by  an  ugly  conversation,  if  he  was 
severe  and  bitter  in  his  judgments,  if  all 
charities  were  scorched  away  by  his  fierce  de- 
nunciations, he  will  rise  in  the  morning  cool 
and  sweet,  and  the  gentle  cheer  of  his  voice 
will  show  that  he  is  clear  of  his  bad  mood 
and  likes  to  have  it  known.  A  man  must 
be  next  to  a  devil  who  wakes  angry.  So 
it  is  that  God  is  seeking  by  the  blest 
ministries  of  the  night  to  soften  our  hearts, 
to  curb  our  evil  passions,  to  give  us  a  chance 
to  think  concerning  the  deeper  things  of 
life,  to  show  us  Himself,  and  awaken  within 
us  sorrow  for  sin,  desire  for  goodness,  and 
prayer  for  divine  help.  So  the  night  comes 
to  be  a  minister  who  preaches  you  a  sermon 
every  twenty-four  hours — a  sermon  more 
solemn  and  majestic  and  splendid  than  any 
that  I  can  preach  to  you.  God  forbid  that 
these  daily  sermons  should  all  pass  un- 
heeded and  fail  in  their  holy  purpose ! 


THE  TREASURES  OF  NIGHT  79 

III 

The  night  is  typical  of  deaths  which  closes 
our  earthly  life,  ^*  Night  is  the  shepherd, 
which  brings  all  things  home/'  Scattered 
through  the  day — the  father  at  his  work  in 
the  shop,  or  the  office,  or  the  mill;  the 
children  at  school,  or  in  various  places  of 
toil — ^night  is  the  shepherd  which  brings 
them  all  home.  So  that  other  night  which 
men  call  Death  is^  the  shepherd  that  shall 
bring  all  of  us  home.  As  night  falls,  and 
the  day's  work  must  be  left  with  its  record 
made  up,  which  it  is  too  late  to  change,  so 
with  the  nightfall  of  death  our  life-record 
must  go  before  the  Judge  of  all  the  earth. 
There  is  no  magic  power  in  the  night  that 
will  change  the  record  of  our  day's  work, 
and  there  is  no  magic  power  in  death  to 
change  the  record  of  our  lives.  Eobert 
Buchanan  wrote  a  poem  which  he  called  the 
* '  Ballad  of  Judas  Iscariot. "  I  do  not  agree, 
of  course,  with  the  implication  of  after- 
death  repentance  which  might  be  found  in 
the  poem,  but  the  thought  of  the  poet  is  this : 
Judas,  the  poor  broken  victim  of  his  own 
sin,  by  which  he  sought  to  profit  through 


80  THE  WOBLD'S  CHILDHOOD 

the  betrayal  of  his  Master,  wanders  in  the 
darkness  through  the  desert  waste  of 
eternity,  till,  seeing  but  one  light,  he  draws 
toward  that. 

The  Bridegroom  shaded  his  eyes  and  looked, 

And  his  face  was  bright  to  see ; 
''What  dost  thou  here  at  the  Lord's  Supper, 

With  thy  body's  sins?"  said  He. 

'Twas  the  soul  of  Judas  Iscariot 

Stood  black  and  sad  and  bare; 
'*I  have  wandered  many  nights  and  days; 

There  is  no  light  elsewhere" 

'Twas  the  Bridegroom  stood  at  the  open  door, 

And  beckoned,  smiling  sweet; 
'Twas  the  soul  of  Judas  Iscariot 

Stole  in,  and  fell  at  His  feet. 
The  supper  wine  is  poured  at  last, 

The  lights  burn  bright  and  fair, 
Iscariot  washes  the  Bridegroom's  feet, 

And  dries  them  with  his  hair. 

My  dear  friends,  we  shall  never  escape 
from  God  by  leaping  into  the  arms  of  death. 
There  is  no  power  in  death  to  cleanse  our 
sins  or  to  change  an  impure  heart.  There  is 
no  light  anywhere  but  in  Jesus  Christ  that 
welcomes  a  sinful  soul.     And  so,  while  the 


J}EE  TREASURES  OF  NIGHT  81 

day  lasts,  ere  the  night  of  death  cometh,  I 
call  you  to  Christ,  the  Savior  of  sinners, 
who  will  welcome  you  with  tenderness  and 
forgiveness.  You  need  not  delay  to  try  in 
some  way  to  make  yourself  better;  the 
power  and  the  mercy  and  the  love  are  all  in 
Jesus.    You  can  only  come,  saying  humbly: 

0  Savior,  I  have  naught  to  plead 
On  earth  beneath  or  heaven  above 

But  just  my  own  exceeding  need, 
And  Thine  exceeding  love. 


LIGHT  AND  SHADOW 

**And  the  evening  and  the  morning  were  the  first 
day.''— Gen.  1:5. 

YOU  will  notice  that  in  our  text,  describ- 
ing the  evolution  of  the  day,  evening 
comes  before  morning.  The  day  begins  with 
the  night.  This  is  just  the  opposite  of  our 
usual  method  of  recording  history.  When 
we  tell  the  story  of  any  historical  event, 
we  are  likely  to  begin  with  the  morning 
and  end  with  the  evening.  Dr.  L.  W.  Bacon 
says  that  history,  as  told  in  literature,  is  a 
tragedy,  and  ends  with  a  death.  So  human 
history  is  ever  looking  backward;  and  the 
morning  and  the  evening  make  the  day. 
But  it  is  not  so  that  God  writes  history. 
The  annals  of  mankind  in  the  Bible  begin 
in  the  darkness  of  apostasy,  but  the  dark- 
ness is  shot  through  with  gleams  of  hope,  the 
first  rays  of  the  dawn.  The  sentence  of 
death  is  illuminated  with  the  promise  of  a 
Savior.  There  is  night  again  when  the 
flood  comes  down,  and  the  civilization  and 

82 


LIGHT  AND  SHADOW  83 

the  wickedness  of  the  primeval  world  are 
whelmed  beneath  it.  But  the  flood  clears  off 
with  a  rainbow,  and  it  is  proved  to  have 
been  the  clearing  of  the  earth  for  a  better 
progress,  for  the  rearing  of  a  godly  race, 
of  whom  by  and  by  the  Christ  shall  come 
according  to  the  flesh.  In  all  our  thinking 
we  should  follow  God's  order.  We  do  so 
in  our  thoughts  about  the  physical  day. 

We  recognize  that  a  restful  night  pre- 
pares for  vigorous  work  in  the  day  to  fol- 
low. This  ought  to  suggest  to  us  that  the 
night  of  sickness  or  sorrow,  or  adversity  of 
any  kind,  is  often  a  preparation  for  a  better 
and  a  nobler  epoch  of  success.  There  could 
be  no  greater  blunder  than  for  us  to  imagine 
that  the  dark  times  in  human  life  are  an  in- 
dication that  God  has  forgotten  us,  or  that 
He  is  angry  with  us,  or  are  in  any  sense  a 
punishment  for  what  is  past.  Instead,  we 
may  be  sure  that  to  them  that  love  God 
times  of  darkness  are  always  meant  as  a 
discipline  and  preparation  for  what  is  com- 
ing in  the  future.  They  are  the  evening 
before  the  day.  There  are  many  such  ex- 
periences in  every  life — times  when  all  that 
we  can  do  is  to  sit  still  and  wait;  trying 


84  THE  WOBLD'S  CHILDHOOD 

experiences,  when  a  man^s  business  is  heavy 
and  stagnant,  or  meets  strong  currents  of 
opposition;  times  of  sickness,  and  depres- 
sion; times  of  grief  and  doubt  and  sorrow. 
These  are  the  even-times  of  life;  and  at 
such  times  we  are  not  to  look  back  and  try 
to  remember  how  much  brighter  it  was  in 
some  other  epoch  of  the  past,  but  to  look 
forward  toward  the  dawn  of  the  morning. 
It  is  folly  in  such  an  experience  to  say, 
*^What  have  I  done,  that  this  sorrow  or  trial 
should  come  upon  mef  What  we  ought  to 
say  is,  '^What  is  God  preparing  for  me,  and 
for  what  is  He  preparing  me,  that  He  should 
thus  lovingly  chasten  and  instruct  me  in 
this  night  of  trial  f  It  is  not  the  night  after 
the  day  that  you  are  in ;  it  is  the  night  before 
the  day;  and  if  with  faithful  heart  you 
seek  to  learn  God's  purpose,  and  humbly 
submit  yourself  to  His  hand,  the  bright  day 
shall  dawn  upon  you  in  a  glory  of  grander 
joy  and  happiness  than  you  have  ever 
known. 

We  may  find  a  beautiful  illustration  of 
this  great  truth  in  the  crucifixion  of  Jesus. 
When  Christ  died  upon  the  cross,  men  said, 
**It  is  the  end.''    His  disciples  forsook  Him 


LIGHT  AND  SHADOW  85 

and  fled.  But  it  was  not  the  end.  It  was 
not  the  evening  after  Christ's  day,  it  was 
the  evening  before.  Easter  morning  was 
soon  to  come,  and  fill  the  world  with  the 
glory  of  immortal  hope. 

Any  of  you  who  are  in  sorrow  should  get 
the  comfort  of  our  theme.  You  should  learn 
that  it  takes  both  light  and  shadow,  both 
evening  and  morning,  to  make  the  day  of  our 
human  life.  The  shadows  are  as  necessary 
as  the  light.  Clouds  are  as  important  as 
sunshine.  A  land  of  perpetual  sunshine, 
where  the  clouds  never  softened  its  glare, 
and  the  skies  never  wept  in  sympathetic 
tears  upon  the  thirsty  fields,  would  be  an 
unfruitful  desert.  Great  fertility  can  only 
come  with  clouds  and  storms  as  well  as 
sunshine  and  heat.  So,  great  fruitfulness 
and  sweetness  of  character,  which  make  a 
man  or  a  woman  like  an  orchard  tree 
hanging  full  of  juicy  blessings  for  all  who 
come  in  contact  with  it,  are  only  possible 
where  the  shadows  have  fallen  as  well  as  the 
light.  If  I  speak  to  any  over  whom  the 
clouds  hang  darkly,  who  is  passing  through 
an  epoch  which  is  dark  with  shadow,  let  me 
comfort  your  soul  with  the  great  truth  that 


89  THE  WOBLD'S  CHILDHOOD 

the  clouds  are  as  much  God^s  messengers  as 
the  sunshine,  that  the  evening  as  well  as  the 
morning  is  a  part  of  God's  benevolent  and 
loving  purpose.  In  the  Gospel  record  we  are 
told  that  on  the  Mount  of  Transfiguration, 
when  Christ  was  transfigured  before  His  dis- 
ciples, after  they  had  seen  the  glory  of  their 
Lord,  a  cloud  overshadowed  them,  and  it  is 
written:  **They  feared  as  they  entered  the 
cloud."  Matthew  tells  us  that  it  was  a  '^bright , 
cloud,*'  and  this  was  true  in  more  senses 
than  one.  Its  brightness  was  not  only  ex- 
ternal, but  spiritual  also,  for  **out  of  the 
cloud  there  came  a  voice,"  which  brought  to 
them  a  wealth  of  blessing  and  inner  light. 
We  read  that  when  they  first  saw  the  glory 
Peter  said:  **Let  us  make  three  taberna- 
cles," but  it  is  added,  ^^not  knowing  what  he 
said."  In  the  ecstasy  of  the  vision  the 
human  voice  was  heard,  a  voice  of  folly;  in 
the  shadow  of  the  cloud,  it  was  the  voice  of 
God;  and  it  would  seem  from  the  after-rec- 
ords of  Peter  and  James  and  John  that 
nothing  made  a  greater  impression  on  them 
amid  all  the  glories  of  the  scene  than  the 
voice  which  spoke  to  them  in  the  midst  of 
the  cloud  that  they  had  feared  to  enter. 


LIGHT  AND  SHADOW  87 

It  is  often  so  with  us ;  many  of  us,  to  hear 
the  voice  of  God,  have  to  enter  into  the 
cloud  and  the  darkness  of  the  evening.  When 
all  is  bright  and  sunny  we  are  apt  to  be 
filled  with  the  joy  of  our  own  emotion,  and 
to  speak  out  of  the  enthusiasm  and  exuber- 
ance of  our  own  spirits ;  but  when  the  even- 
ing of  trial  and  sorrow  and  misfortune 
comes  upon  us,  and  we  feel  our  own  helpless- 
ness and  need,  we  become  conscious  of  our 
dependence  upon  God,  and  we  bow  our  hearts 
and  open  our  ears  to  catch  the  words  that 
come  to  us  from  heaven.  Many  men  have 
heard  messages  in  the  midnight  to  which 
they  were  deaf  at  high  noon.  Despair  not  be- 
cause it  is  evening,  for  the  morning  cometh! 

There  is  room  here  for  an  earnest  word  of 
warning.  Some  of  you  are  enjoying  the  sun- 
shine of  a  great  and  beautiful  prosperity. 
Your  health  is  strong,  your  business  is  profit- 
able, your  friends  are  kind,  and  heaven  seems 
to  smile  upon  you.  I  would  not  say  one  word 
to  darken  or  lessen  your  joy,  but  I  would 
utter  a  word  of  wisdom  given  me  from  God's 
truth  and  speaking  out  of  our  theme  at  this 
time,  and  that  is,  that  for  you  as  well  as 
others  the  sunshine  will  not  always  be  for 


88  THE  WORLD'S  CHILDHOOD 

the  best.  You  should  not  permit  the  pros- 
perity and  the  happiness  which  you  now  en- 
joy to  make  you  proud,  or  indifferent  to 
spiritual  things,  or  stubborn  in  seeking  to 
have  your  own  way.  You  should  remember 
that  all  these  things  come  to  you  from  God, 
and  that  humility  and  gratitude  are  your 
proper  attitude  in  the  sunshine  of  your  life. 
For  you,  too,  clouds  will  come.  You,  too, 
will  know  the  darkness  of  tears,  the  agony 
of  heartache,  and  the  strain  of  burden-bear- 
ing. Your  life  would  be  barren  if  this  were 
not  so.  Do  not  enjoy  your  day  the  less  be- 
cause of  this,  but  seek  through  humility  and 
gratitude  and  sympathy  and  fruitfulness  of 
life  to  make  day  a  preparation  for  night  and 
darkness.  Both  for  the  light  and  the  shadows 
of  life  trustfulness  in  the  divine  love  is  our 
one  source  of  peace.  Some  unknown  poet 
brings  this  out  in  a  song  which,  characteriz- 
ing many  epochs  of  Christian  experience, 
finds  that  trust  in  Jesus  fits  one  as  well  as 
another.    He  sings : 

Trust  in  Jesus,  trembling  Christian, 
Strength  you  need  beyond  your  own; 

Trust  not  in  your  feeble  efforts, 
He  can  help,  and  He  alone. 


LIGHT  AND  SHADOW  89 

Trust  in  Jesus,  doubting  Christian, 

Has  He  ever  failed  you  yet? 
Is  there  not  for  you  a  promise, 

*<Yet  will  I  not  thee  forget''? 


Trust  in  Jesus,  weary  Christian, 
Work  He  asks  not  now  of  you; 

'Neath  His  shadow  sweetly  resting 
You  shall  taste  His  love  anew. 


Trust  in  Jesus,  suffering  Christian, 
Well  He  knows  your  every  pain; 

He  who  bled  on  Calvary's  mountain 
Suffers  in  His  child  again! 


Trust  in  Jesus,  needy  Christian, 

Tell  Him  all  your  wants  iu  prayer; 

** Cruse"  and  '* barrel"  shall  not  fail  you, 
Since  He  makes  them  both  His  care. 


Trust  in  Jesus,  working  Christian, 
Sow  not  with  a  sparing  hand; 

Crops,  when  comes  the  day  of  reaping. 
Will  spring  forth  at  His  command  I 

Trust  in  Jesus,  wealthy  Christian, 
Use  for  Him  His  gift  of  gold; 

Know  that  what  you  lend  to  Jesus, 
He'll  repay  in  gain  untold! 


90  TEE  WOELD'S  CHILDHOOD 

Trust  in  Jesus  all  who  know  Him; 

None  can  teach  and  guide  as  He; 
Prove  Him,  and  you'll  find  how  precious 

Such  a  Friend  will  always  be! 


But  there  are  some  of  you  to  whom  these 
trustful  words  of  divine  faith  do  not  bring 
comfort,  for  there  is  upon  your  conscience  a 
weight  of  guilt  and  sin.  You  have  refused 
the  divine  love.  God  has  spoken  to  you  by 
His  Spirit  in  the  quiet  hours  of  the  night; 
He  has  spoken  to  you  through  the  preaching 
of  His  word ;  He  has  spoken  to  you  through 
the  tender  love  of  Christian  friends ;  but  you 
have  refused  to  respond,  and  in  sinning 
against  light  and  knowledge  you  have 
brought  darkness  to  your  own  heart.  The 
way  is  dark  before  you  at  this  moment.  Sin 
always  brings  darkness.  Sin  is  darkness. 
The  sinning  soul  can  never  be  permanently 
happy.  The  sinning  soul  is  never  happy  ex- 
cept in  forgetfulness.  And  the  darkness 
which  comes  from  sin  grows  darker  and 
darker  until  the  blackness  of  eternal  night 
settles  down  upon  the  soul.  But  I  thank 
God  that,  tho  the  darkness  of  sin  hangs  over 
your  heart,  I  have  for  you  a  message  of  light 


LIGHT  AND  SHADOW  91 

and  mercy  that  may  pierce  the  darkness 
which  envelops  you  and  give  the  promise  of 
the  dawn  of  a  glorious  day.  Jesns  Christ 
has  risen  above  the  world  as  the  Sun  of 
Eighteousness,  with  healing  in  His  beams. 
In  Christ  is  the  light  of  hope.  In  Him  is  the 
light  of  forgiveness.  In  Him  is  the  light  of 
freedom  from  sin,  and  deliverance  from  the 
bondage  of  dark  and  sinful  habits.  It  is 
dark  everywhere  else,  but  at  the  cross,  where 
Christ  died  for  our  sins,  heaven's  light  of 
mercy  always  falls.  Come  to  Calvary  and 
you  shall  find  light  for  your  heart  and  light 
for  your  path. 


My  brother,  thou  hast  traveled  far, 

'Twixt  purple  East  and  golden  Westf 
The   Southern  Cross  and  Polar  Star 
Have  brightened  o'er  thy  transient  rest; 
Thy  way  has  led  o'er  land  and  sea, 
But  hast  thou  been  to  Calvary? 
«# 

Perchance  thy  daring  feet  have  trod 

Some  Alpine,  Himalayan  peak; 
Or  Sinai,  whence  the  living  God 
Of  old  His  fiery  law  did  speak; 

Such  scenes  have  cast  their  spell  on  thee, 
But  hast  thou  been  to  Calvary? 


92  THE  WOBLD'S  CHILDHOOD 

It  may  be  thou  hast  traced  the  course 

Of  rolling  rivers  deep  and  wide. 
Or  viewed  the  cascade's  thundering  force 
Far  plashing  down  the  mountain  side; 
But  hast  thou  turned  aside  to  see 
The  streams  that  flow  from  Calvary? 

Thine  eyes  have  scanned  the  starry  night 

Where  days  their  equal  courses  run, 
Or  lingered  with  a  strange  delight 
O'er  visions  of  the  midnight  sun; 

But  hast  thou  seen  hell's  darkness  flee, 
And  heaven  beam  forth  on  Calvary? 


THE  ATMOSPHERE  OF  LIFE 

**And  God  made  the  firmament,  and  divided  the 
waters  which  were  under  the  firmament  from  the 
waters  which  were  above  the  firmament/' — Gen.  1:7. 

BETWEEN  the  waters  above  and  the  waters 
below  we  have  the  atmosphere  which 
surrounds  the  earth  and  makes  human  life 
possible.  The  word  ** atmosphere"  is  a  com- 
pound of  two  Greek  words,  one  meaning 
*Wapor''  and  the  other  ** sphere'';  when 
taken  together,  they  signify  a  sphere  of  va- 
por in  which  the  world  is  wrapt.  The  wisest 
among  the  ancients  looked  upon  the  air  much 
as  little  children  do  now.  They  thought  it 
was  nothing.  A  child  seeing  a  vessel  filled 
only  with  air  would  be  likely  to  say  that  it 
had  nothing  in  it.  The  old  expression,  **as 
light  as  air,*'  which  we  so  frequently  use, 
is  a  very  erroneous  phrase  used  to  describe 
nothingness.  Scientists  tell  us  that  the  mere 
breathing  of  the  air  yields  us  three-quarters 
of  all  our  nourishment,  while  the  other  quar- 
ter only  is  supplied  by  the  solid  and  liquid 
food  which  we  partake.     It  has  well  been 

93 


94  TEE  WOBLD'S  CHILDHOOD 

said  that  we  can  truly  say  of  the  atmosphere 
what  the  Apostle  Paul,  and  the  old  Greek 
poet  before  him,  whom  he  quoted,  said  of 
God,  *^In  it  we  live  and  move  and  have  our 
being."  The  weight  of  the  atmosphere  is  so 
great  that  its  pressure  upon  a  man  of  ordi- 
nary size  has  been  computed  to  be  from  four- 
teen to  fifteen  tons.  A  man  of  unusually 
large  body  would  have  to  carry  one  or  two 
tons  additional.  But  as  the  pressure  of  the 
atmosphere  comes  against  us  equally  upon 
all  sides  and  parts  of  the  body,  it  not  only 
does  not  crush  or  injure  the  frailest  child, 
but  feeds  and  nourishes  it. 

Few  of  us  give  the  matter  sufficient  thought 
to  arouse  the  gratitude  we  owe  to  God  for 
the  blessings  of  the  atmosphere.  One  scholar, 
writing  upon  this  point,  says  that  the  atmos- 
phere is  the  great  agent  by  which  Nature 
receives  the  wonderful  colors  which  are  her 
most  beautiful  adorning.  It  is  owing  to  the 
reflection  of  the  sun's  rays  that  the  sky  and 
the  distant  horizon  assume  that  beautiful 
azure  hue  which  is  subject  to  endless  varia- 
tions. It  is  owing  to  the  refraction  of  these 
rays  as  they  pass  obliquely  through  the 
aerial  strata  that  we  have  the  splendors  of 


THE  ATMOSPHEBE  OF  LIFE  95 

the  morning  and  evening  twilight,  and  that 
we  see  the  sun  some  minutes  before  it  actu- 
ally rises  above  the  eastern  horizon,  and 
again  several  minutes  after  it  actually  dis- 
appears below  the  western  horizon.  If  it 
were  not  for  the  atmosphere,  the  light  would 
instantaneously  disappear  as  the  sun  sank 
below  the  horizon,  and  leave  the  world  in 
utter  darkness,  while  at  its  rising  in  the 
morning  the  world  would  pass  in  an  instant 
from  complete  darkness  into  a  flood  of  daz- 
zling and  blinding  light.  Such  daily  and 
sudden  shocks  to  vision  would  be  painful, 
and  probably  destructive  to  sight.  Without 
the  atmosphere  there  would  have  been  no 
place  in  the  universe  for  the  dwelling-place 
of  man,  because  without  it  the  waters  would 
have  prevailed.  But  as  by  the  atmosphere 
the  waters  below  were  divided  from  those 
above,  a  place  was  provided  suitable  for 
the  abode  of  man.  Without  the  air,  which 
gathers  the  moisture  into  clouds  and  sends 
it  down  again  upon  the  earth,  there  could 
be  no  such  thing  as  rain  or  snow.  Without 
the  atmosphere  there  could  be  no  purifying 
winds,  which  are  but  air  in  motion,  no 
medium  to   transmit  and  diffuse   the  light 


96  THE  WORLD'S  CHILDHOOD 

and  heat  of  the  sun,  no  agent  to  modify 
and  make  surpassingly  beautiful  the  light  of 
the  sun,  and  no  possibility  of  respiration 
for  plants  or  animals,  without  which  it  would 
be  impossible  to  maintain  any  form  of  or- 
ganic life. 

The  atmosphere,  too,  is  indispensable  for 
all  the  practical  purposes  of  life.  If  by  some 
miraculous  intervention  it  should  be  made 
possible  for  human  life  to  exist  without 
the  air,  it  would  be  useless  and  vain.  The 
air  is  necessary  for  the  transmission  of 
sound.  Without  it,  the  bell  might  be  tolled, 
the  cannon  might  be  fired,  a  great  chorus 
of  sweet*  voices  might  unite  to  render  the 
music  of  the  noblest  hymn,  but  not  the 
faintest  sound  would  be  audible  either  to 
the  performers  or  to  the  listeners.  You 
might  breathe  or  even  loudly  speak  your 
words  of  love  into  the  very  ear  of  some 
dear  one,  and  yet  not  one  of  your  words 
would  be  heard  without  the  presence  of  air 
in  the  ear  to  empower  its  wondrous  mechan- 
ism for  hearing.  As  light  is  necessary  for 
seeing,  so  in  exactly  the  same  way  is  the 
air  necessary  for  hearing,  and  without  it  the 
ear  would  be  perfectly  useless,  instead  of 


THE  ATMOSPHERE  OF  LIFE  97 

being,  as  now,  a  wonderful  organ  to  minister 
to  our  joy  and  delight.  And  since  without 
the  atmosphere  we  could  not  hear  each  other 
speak,  it  follows  that  all  commercial,  edu- 
cational, and  social  intercourse  would  be 
at  an  end,  and  the  earth  would  become  one 
vast  grave. 

The  physical  atmosphere  should  be  rich 
in  spiritual  suggestions  concerning  the  at- 
mosphere of  the  soul. 


The  kind  of  atmosphere  in  any  country 
dictates  the  quality  of  physical  life  which 
may  be  produced  there.  Many  flowers  and 
plants  will  grow  in  one  atmosphere  but  not 
in  another.  Many  men  and  women  who  live 
comfortably  and  happily  in  a  rare  atmos- 
phere in  some  lofty  tableland  or  mountain 
region  could  not  perpetuate  their  lives  in 
a  low  heavy  atmosphere  near  the  sea.  Thus, 
the  atmosphere  becomes  the  best  of  medi- 
cine and  abounds  in  healing  balm.  The  same 
is  true  in  spiritual  things.  There  is  such 
a  thing  as  a  spiritual  atmosphere  in  which 


98  THE  WOBLD'S  CHILDHOOD 

the  mind  and  heart  and  soul  of  man  thrives 
and  grows  powerful.  That  is  one  of  the 
characteristics  of  the  Bible.  It  is  not  only 
the  wonderful  message  which  the  Bible 
brings  to  us  that  makes  it  the  most  powerful 
book  in  the  world,  but  it  is  a  certain  spiritual 
atmosphere  which  pervades  it  from  begin- 
ning to  end.  No  man  can  read  the  Bible 
without  having  his  thoughts  continually 
running  out  after  God.  God  is  in  the  world. 
He  is  in  the  history  of  the  world.  He  has 
spoken  to  men.  He  does  speak  to  men. 
He  loves  mankind.  He  seeks  their  good. 
The  heart  of  the  universe  is  kind.  Provi- 
dence is  loving.  No  man  can  read  the 
Bible  without  feeling  these  things.  It  is  an 
atmosphere  which  he  breathes.  And  that 
fact  makes  sincere  and  habitual  reading  of 
the  Bible  one  of  the  greatest  sources  of  high 
and  noble  living. 

Public  worship,  with  its  reading  of  the 
Bible,  its  singing  of  worshipful  hymns 
voicing  the  souPs  loftiest  adoration  and  love 
for  God,  with  the  preaching  of  the  message 
of  heaven's  love  and  power  and  willing- 
ness to  forgive  sins,  creates  an  atmosphere 
which  tremendously  affects  the  thoughts  and 


TEE  ATMOSPHERE  OF  LIFE  99 

ideals  and  ambitions  and  conduct  of  the 
people  who  regularly  attend  the  church  of 
God.  A  habit  of  regular  church-going  is 
one  of  the  most  important  for  any  man  or 
woman  who  desires  to  live  a  noble  life, 
because  of  the  atmosphere  of  faith  and  hope 
and  love  which  is  breathed  there. 

A  famous  Japanese  general,  asked  how 
he  accounted  for  the  wonderful  vitality, 
bravery,  and  enthusiasm  of  the  Japanese 
soldiers  as  contrasted  with  the  Eussian 
soldiers,  said  he  believed  it  was  mainly  due 
to  their  mental  and  spiritual  attitude.  He 
said  the  Russian  soldier,  as  a  rule,  was  in 
a  discouraged  and  pessimistic  state  of  mind. 
He  had  no  hope  either  here  or  hereafter. 
Should  he  live  to  return  to  his  home,  nothing 
but  humdrum  and  trial  awaited  him.  He 
had  no  love  for  his  life  or  for  his  country, 
and  he  had  little  hope  for  a  future  life. 
His  earthly  prospect,  as  well  as  his  religious 
faith,  was  of  a  dull  and  hopeless  character. 
On  the  other  hand,  the  Japanese  soldier 
loves  his  country  and  home  life.  He  is 
sustained  through  the  fatigue  of  the  march 
and  the  dangers  of  the  battlefield  by  fond 
anticipation  of  his  return  home.    In  case  he 


100  TEE  WORLD'S  CHILDHOOD 

is  killed  fighting  for  his  country,  according 
to  his  religion,  nothing  but  the  brightest 
prospects  are  before  him.  He  simply  be- 
comes a  part  of  the  ministering  host  of  other 
spirits,  helping  to  cheer  on*  his  remaining 
comrades  to  victory. 

Hope  is  the  religion  of  life  and  health. 
The  man  or  the  woman  who  is  inspired  by 
hope  will  grudge  no  labor,  no  care,  no 
severity  of  strain  or  hardship.  They  will 
survive  when  others  fail,  will  wax  strong 
when  others  languish.  So  it  is  that  the 
public  and  private  worship  of  God,  in  which 
we  take  hold  of  the  divine  aid  and  feel 
that  God  is  with  us  and  for  us,  creates  an 
atmosphere  of  hope  that  will  overcome  all 
opposition. 


II 


These  reflections  should  impress  upon  our 
minds  and  hearts  the  necessity  of  being 
very  careful  about  the  atmosphere  into 
which  we  thrust  our  spiritual  natures.  The 
soul  may  be  poisoned  as  well  as  the  body. 

In  Nathaniel  Hawthorne's  remarkable 
story,  ^^Eappaccini's  Daughter,''  he  describes 


THE   ATMOSPHERE    OF   LIFE  101 

a  chemist  who,  in  the  study  of  poisons,  had 
a  garden  full  of  lovely  but  poisonous  flowers, 
to  whose  breath,  in  a  fiendish  experiment,  he 
exposed  for  years  his  beautiful  daughter. 
The  girl  became  so  impregnated  with  the 
poison  that  her  own  breath  was  deadly  to 
any  living  thing.  That  is  a  true  picture  of 
those  who  breathe  a  selfish  and  impure 
atmosphere.  They  are  not  only  poisoned  by 
it,  but  they  become  themselves  poisonous  in 
their  turn. 

Beware  of  evil  associations  which  create 
an  atmosphere  that  intoxicates  and  drugs 
the  soul  with  fumes  that  come  from  the 
pit.  The  aroused  feeling  in  our  own  city 
at  this  moment  because  of  the  relation  of  a 
public-school  building  to  certain  streets 
along  which  little  children  and  youth  would 
have  to  go  daily,  is  in  point.  Thoughtful 
people,  knowing  that  the  moral  atmosphere 
of  these  streets  is  impure  and  unclean,  and 
likely  to  poison  the  minds  and  hearts  of 
youth  now  innocent,  seek  to  save  them  from 
the  dangerous  contamination.  That  is  wise 
and  right.  But  our  message  should  come 
to  those  who  are  masters  of  themselves 
and  may  choose  their  own  atmosphere  for 


102  THE  WOBLD'S  CHILDHOOD 

their  souls.  There  is  nothing  so  important 
to  young  men  or  young  women  in  coming 
into  a  city  as  to  place  themselves  by  their 
acquaintance  and  social  surroundings  where 
the  atmosphere  they  breathe  from  the 
friendly  conversations  of  their  daily  lives 
shall  be  pure  and  wholesome.  A  young  man 
may  live  in  this  city  and  breathe  con- 
stantly an  atmosphere  that  is  rare  and 
true.  He  may  grow  strong  on  its  fragrance 
of  hope  and  love  and  faith.  At  the  same 
time  another  young  man  coming  to  the  city 
from  the  same  country  town  or  farming  com- 
munity may  place  himself  in  such  surround- 
ings and  with  such  friends  that  he  will 
breathe  the  very  atmosphere  of  hell,  until 
his  whole  soul  and  life  is  poisoned  by  it. 

It  is  the  glory  of  Christianity  that  where- 
ever  it  prevails  it  creates  a  purer  atmos- 
phere for  the  growth  of  human  hearts  and 
lives.  And  what  is  true  of  the  civilization 
which  it  develops  in  a  multitude,  is  true  of 
every  individual  man  or  woman  who  gives 
himself  or  herself  up  to  follow  Christ.  Even 
tho'  you  have  followed  sin  until  an  atmos- 
phere of  hopelessness  and  despair  surrounds 
your  soul,  yet  if  you  will   come  to   Christ 


THE  ATMOSPHERE  OF  LIFE  103 

humbly  and  reverently,  He  will  take  you 
out  of  that  atmosphere  of  darkness  and 
gloom  and  lift  you  into  an  atmosphere  full 
of  sunshine  and  hope.  Perhaps  that  trans- 
formation was  never  more  splendidly  de- 
scribed than  by  David  when  he  says:  **I 
waited  patiently  for  the  Lord;  and  he 
inclined  unto  me,  and  heard  my  cry.  He 
brought  me  up  also  out  of  an  horrible  pit, 
out  of  the  miry  clay,  and  set  my  feet  upon 
a  rock,  and  established  my  goings.  And  he 
hath  put  a  new  song  in  my  mouth,  even 
praises  unto  our  God.*' 


APPEAL  OF  THE  SKY 

*^God  called  the  firmament  heaven.'* — Gen.  1:8. 

THE  sky  is  treated  with  most  beautiful 
poetic  imagery  in  the  Bible.  In  the 
Book  of  Proverbs,  where  wisdom  speaks 
as  tho  incarnated,  we  hear  her  saying: 
*'When  he  prepared  the  heavens,  I  was 
there:  When  he  set  a  compass  upon  the 
face  of  the  depth:  When  he  established 
the  clouds  above.''  Isaiah,  speaking  of 
the  sky  as  part  of  God's  creation  which 
He  made  and  can  again  destroy,  says: 
*^And  all  the  host  of  heaven  shall  be  dis- 
solved, and  the  heavens  shall  be  rolled  to- 
gether as  a  scroll:  and  all  their  host  shall 
fall  down,  as  the  leaf  falleth  off  from  tho 
vine,  and  as  a  falling  fig  from  the  fig  tree." 
And  again,  in  his  description  of  the  might 
and  glory  of  God,  Isaiah  says:  **It  is  he 
that  sitteth  upon  the  circle  of  the  earth, 
and  the  inhabitants  thereof  are  as  grass- 
hoppers; that  stretcheth  out  the  heavens 
as  a  curtain,  and  spreadeth  them  out  as  a 
tent  to   dwell   in."     In  the  Book  of  Job, 

104 


APPEAL  OF  THE  SKY  105 

also:  *'Is  not  God  in  the  heights  of  heaven? 
And  behold  the  height  of  the  stars  how 
high  they  are!  And  thou  sayest,  how 
doth  God  know!  Can  he  judge  through  the 
dark  cloud!  Thick  clouds  are  a  covering 
to  him,  that  he  seeth  not;  and  he  walketh 
in  the  circuit  of  heaven."  Again,  the 
writer  of  the  same  book,  contrasting  man's 
littleness  with  God's  greatness,  inquires: 
'^Hast  thou  with  him  spread  out  the  sky, 
which  is  strong,  and  as  a  molten  looking- 
glass!"  And  the  Psalmist,  calling  on  all 
things  to  praise  God,  exclaims:  ** Praise  ye 
him,  sun  and  moon:  Praise  him,  all  ye 
stars  of  light.  Praise  him,  ye  heaven  of 
heavens,  and  ye  waters  that  be  above  the 
heavens. ' ' 

This  poetical  language  has  sometimes  been 
criticized  as  not  being  scientifically  correct, 
but  that  is  a  very  cheap  criticism.  It  is  not 
scientifically  correct  to  say  there  is  a  **  sun- 
rise," or  that  we  have  seen  a  ** sunset," 
but  every  scientific  man  in  the  world  uses 
these  phrases.  There  are  many  things  in 
the  world  in  description  of  which  poetry  is 
more  correct  than  science. 

The  moral  and  spiritual  teaching  of  the 


106  THE  WORLD'S  CHILDHOOD 

sky  should  be  very  helpful.  It  is  so  aburdant 
that  one  can  only  glance  at  some  of  the 
supreme  messages  it  is  always  bringing  to 
us. 


The  sky  suggests  the  souPs  true  direction 
— it  is  upward.  Every  man  who  is  true  to 
himself,  and  who  seeks  the  proper  develop- 
ment of  his  body  and  mind  and  heart,  aspires 
constantly  to  higher  things.  The  very 
phrase  *^  higher  things, '^  which  I  used  quite 
unconsciously,  suggests  the  great  fact  that 
we  are  always  using  the  idea  of  altitude  to 
denote  the  difference  between  good  and 
evil.  All  the  figures,  all  the  adjectives  which 
describe  that  which  is  pure  and  righteous 
and  noble  and  heroic,  are  those  that  indicate 
altitude.  How  constantly  we  are  saying, 
*^ exalted  worth,*'  or  ^^high  resolve,*'  or 
*4ofty  ambitions,*'  or  ^* elevated  purposes," 
or  ** eminent  purity,"  or  ^* sublime  charac- 
ter." It  is  impossible  to  think  of  things 
which  are  beautiful  and  noble  and  glorious 
without  this  idea  of  exaltation;  something 
lifted  upward  toward  the  sky.    On  the  other 


AFFEAL  OF  THE  SKX  lOV 

hand,  we  never  speak  of  evil  in  that  way. 
If  a  thing  is  mean  and  ugly  and  wicked,  we 
think  of  it  as  beneath.  We  speak  of  a  very 
mean,  depraved  person  as  ^*  beneath  con- 
tempt," and  we  are  constantly  using  expres- 
sions of  that  sort,  such  as  *4ow  instincts,'' 
or  ** degraded  character,"  or  /* groveling 
habits."  And  how  frequently  in  speaking 
of  some  man  who  has  been  guilty  of  con- 
duct quite  unworthy  of  his  reputation  and 
ordinary  life,  we  say  of  it,  **Such  an  act 
was  beneath  him ;  he  should  not  have  stooped 
so  low  as  to  do  it." 

From  these  illustrations  it  is  evident  that 
the  sky  is  a  perpetual  appeal  to  us,  calling 
man  upward,  showing  that  he  was  not  made 
to  grovel  in  the  dirt,  but  to  soar  aloft  in  his 
thoughts  and  ambitions  toward  heaven. 


n 

The  sky  lifts  our  thoughts  to  God.  Every- 
thing that  comes  from  the  sky  is  pure  and 
wholesome.  The  floods  of  sunshine  that 
come  with  their  illuminating  beams,  the 
white  snow  that  comes  as  a  mantle  of  right- 
eousness, the  rain  that  has  been  filtered  and 


108  TEE  WORLD* S  CHILDHOOD 

purified  in  the  lofty  cloud  centers,  all  are 
pure.  Beneath  us  there  may  be  swamps 
full  of  malaria.  There  may  be  pestilential 
breaths  from  a  thousand  diseased  centers 
of  man's  filth,  and  ignorance,  and  sin;  but 
from  the  sky  nothing  impure  falls  upon  us. 
So  our  thoughts  are  lifted  up  to  the  sky 
as  the  fountain  of  purity  and  goodness.  A 
man  looks  into  the  sky,  whether  it  holds 
clouds  full  of  pure  rain-drops,  or  white  snow- 
flakes,  or  is  a  blue  vault  full  of  infinite 
mystery  at  noontide,  or  sparkling  with 
jeweled  stars  at  midnight,  and  it  shames  his 
sin  and  his  meanness  and  calls  him  to  ac- 
count in  the  court  of  his  own  conscience. 
The  vaulted  sky  is  a  perpetual  appeal  to  us 
for  a  true  life,  for  a  holy  character,  and  a 
perpetual  rebuke  to  sin  and  meanness. 

Ill 

The  sky  vaulted  over  our  heads,  and  com- 
ing down  to  our  view  at  the  horizon,  sug- 
gests to  us  that  heaven  is  forever  stooping 
down  to  lift  men  upward.  Man  left  to 
himself  falls  into  evil  ways  and  grovels 
like  a  vine  upon  the  earth.    A  man  born  into 


APPEAL  OF  THE  SK¥  109 

the  world  innocent  and  pure,  as  is  every 
little  child,  may  lose  all  that  innocence  and 
purity  if  his  face  be  turned  from  the  sky 
and  he  refuses  to  yield  to  its  magnetic  ap- 
peal. 

Many  of  you  have  heard  of  the  young 
artist  who  painted  on  one  occasion  a  picture 
of  innocence.  It  was  the  picture  of  a  little 
child,  so  fair,  so  sweet,  so  sunny,  that  it 
seemed  to  the  artist,  with  the  bright  and 
ardent  visions  of  youth,  as  if  it  had  come 
straight  from  the  hand  of  God.  He  was  suc- 
cessful in  his  work,  and  he  hung  the  picture 
on  the  wall  of  his  studio  and  would  not  part 
with  it;  he  grew  so  fond  of  it  himself,  this 
fair  picture  of  innocence.  Long  years  passed, 
and  it  still  hung  in  his  studio.  When  he 
grew  older  he  wanted  to  paint  a  companion 
picture  for  it,  a  picture  which  he  could  call 
**Vice.''  But  he  never  could  see  anything 
which  fitted  in  with  his  idea  of  the  horror 
and  repulsiveness  of  guilt  in  all  its  odious- 
ness,  until  at  last  one  day,  in  a  gloomy  cell 
in  a  city  prison,  he  came  across  a  wretched 
criminal  on  whose  coarse  features  were 
written  every  mark  which  sin  and  vice  could 
write,  claiming  this  wretch  for  their  own. 


110  TEE  WORLD'S  CHILDHOOD 

He  asked  and  obtained  permission  to  trans- 
fer these  coarsened  features  to  his  canvas,  to 
make  a  companion  picture  to  his  picture  of 
innocence;  and  what  was  his  amazement 
when  in  course  of  conversation  with  his 
subject  he  discovered  that  this  was  the  man 
who,  as  a  child,  had  sat  as  his  study  of  inno- 
cence. Years  of  groveling  in  sin  had 
wrought  their  inevitable  change,  and  had 
brought  about  this  awful  ruin.  Sin  will 
always  work  this  evil  transformation.  But, 
thank  God!  heaven's  sky  bends  over  us 
''like  as  a  father  pitieth  his  children,''  ''as 
a  mother  comforteth  her  child,"  and  Jesus 
Christ  comes  down  from  heaven  to  earth, 
God's  messenger  to  lead  us  upward. 

George  Frederick  Watts,  a  great  Christian 
artist,  has  in  the  Tate  Gallery  in  London  a 
beautiful  picture  entitled  "Love  and  Life." 
Life  is  represented  as  a  frail,  timid,  diffident 
maiden  climbing  up  a  steep  and  almost 
inaccessible  mountain.  Love  comes  to  her 
rescue  and  help  in  the  guise  of  a  young 
angel,  strong  in  limb  and  wing,  and  un- 
speakably tender  in  hand  and  face.  Behind 
the  maiden  is  a  deep  abyss,  and  one  wonders 
how  she  climbed  out  of  it.     Before  her  is 


APPEAL  OF  THE  SKY  111 

a  lofty  mountam  with  steep  ascent,  and 
one  wonders  how,  in  her  own  unaided 
strength,  she  can  ever  scale  it.  Her  face  ap- 
peals in  wistful  trustfulness  to  her  athletic 
supporter,  his  face  reassures  her  of  help- 
fulness, but  he  does  not  attempt  to  carry 
her  or  put  his  arm  around  her,  or  even  take 
hers  in  his.  He  only  permits  her  to  place 
her  hand  in  his  open  palm.  He  will  see 
her  up  the  steep  ascent,  but  he  is  not  going 
to  deprive  her  of  the  joy  and  exaltation 
of  effort  and  exertion.  Watts  intended  to 
preach  a  sermon  in  this  picture.'  The  frail, 
impotent  woman  is  meant  to  represent  sinful 
humanity,  while  the  painter  himself  has  told 
us  that  his  was  the  Pauline  conception  of 
Love,  who  spoke  of  the  love  of  God  con- 
straining him.  There  is  no  finer  gospel 
sermon  than  this  picture.  Life  a  steep, 
rugged  mountain,  man  weak  and  sinful  and 
helpless,  divine  Love  coming  down  the 
mountain  to  meet  him,  responding  to  his 
appealing  look  with  strong  tenderness.  The 
poor  sinner  in  trustful  faith  placing  his 
hand  in  the  open  palm  of  God,  and  God 
leading  him  up  the  rough,  narrow  path  till 
he  reaches  the  summit  in  triumph  and  glad- 


112  THE  WORLD'S  CHILDHOOD 

ness.  The  mountain  is  so  steep  that  it  is 
evident  Life  can  do  nothing  without  Love, 
but  the  angel  is  so  strong  that  it  is  evident 
Life  can  do  everything  with  Love.  The  two 
faces  are  a  rich  study,  the  shrinking  timidity 
and  yet  appealing  trustfulness  in  the  face 
of  Life,  while  there  is  such  a  strong  tender- 
ness in  the  face  of  Love  that  it  seems  as  tho 
we  were  looking  into  the  eyes  of  Him  who 
was  nailed  to  the  cross  for  us. 

Our  theme,  and  this  illustration  of  it, 
should  appeal  to  all  our  hearts,  and  should 
come  with  special  emphasis  to  you  who 
have  hitherto  disregarded  the  infinite  tender- 
ness of  God  in  Jesus  Christ  in  bowing  the 
heavens  and  coming  down  in  seeking  your 
salvation.  In  Jesus  Christ  the  sky  stoops 
down  to  lift  men  out  of  their  sins  into  fellow- 
ship with  Heaven.  Jesus  is  the  hand  of 
divine  Love  offered  to  man  in  his  hour  of 
need  and  sin,  and  if  we  place  our  hand  in 
His  open  palm.  He  will  not  fail  or  forsake 
us  until  the  mountain-top  is  reached.  How 
tender  are  the  words  and  the  figures  used 
in  the  Bible  to  convey  to  us  the  infinite  love 
and  sympathy  and  patience  of  Jesus  Christ. 
*'A  bruised  reed  he  will  not  break,  and  the 


APPEAL  OF  THE  SKY  113 

smoking  flax  he  will  not  quench.*'  Oh, 
brother,  sister,  has  life  gone  hard  with  you? 
Is  your  heart  heavy  and  sore  with  trouble? 
Does  it  seem  to  you  in  your  discouragement 
that  you  are  like  a  broken  reed?  Christ 
will  take  you  in  His  arms  as  tenderly  as 
ever  mother  brooded  over  her  helpless  babe. 
Again  it  is  said  of  Jesus,  **  Having  loved  his 
own  which  were  in  the  world,  he  loved  them 
to  the  end.''  No  man  shall  ever  sorrow 
because  Jesus  was  unfaithful  or  deserted 
the  heart  that  trusted  Him  in  the  hour  of 
need.  Everything  else  may  change,  but 
Christ  is  the  same  **  yesterday,  to-day,  and 
forever.''  Paul,  who  had  more  trials  than 
most  men,  who  had  been  shipwrecked,  and 
beaten  with  rods,  stoned  until  he  was  left 
for  dead,  and  imprisoned  through  weary 
years,  after  it  all  was  able  to  say  with 
joyous  confidence:  **I  am  persuaded,  that 
neither  death,  nor  life,  nor  angels,  nor 
principalities,  nor  powers,  nor  things  pres- 
ent, nor  things  to  come,  nor  height  nor 
depth,  nor  any  other  creature,  shall  be  able 
to  separate  us  from  the  love  of  God,  which 
is  in  Christ  Jesus  our  Lord." 


THE  BIETH  OF  INDIVIDUALITY 

^'And  God  said,  Let  the  waters  under  the  heaven 
be  gathered  together  in  one  place,  and  let  the  dry  land 
appear :    And  it  was  so." — Gen.  1 :  9. 

OUR  text  brings  us  to  the  birth  of 
individuality  in  the  story  of  creation. 
Up  to  this  point  in  this  condensed  biography 
of  the  universe  we  have  been  dealing  with  the 
world  in  a  mass — a  great  seething,  heaving 
mass.  It  is  all  alike.  It  is  vast  and  awe- 
inspiring,  but  it  is  monotonous.  Now  God's 
purpose  begins  to  express  itself  in  indi- 
vidual shapes  and  forms.  Diversity  is  in- 
troduced. Things  begin  to  differ  from  each 
other,  and  have  characteristics  of  their  own. 
The  waters  begin  to  recede,  and  the  gaunt, 
huge  mountains  peer  forth  into  the  atmos- 
phere and  thrust  their  summits  upward  into 
the  newly  formed  sky.  Individualism  now 
takes  its  place.  Each  mountain  and  canon 
and  valley  and  tableland  has  topography 
and  story  of  its  very  own.  The  world  now 
begins  to  take  on  added  interest. 

114 


THE  SISTH  OF  INDIVIDUALITY  115 


We  should  learn  from  this  the  importance 
of  individuality  in  our  human  lives.  It  is  a 
sin  to  try  to  make  people  all  on  the  same 
cut-and-dried  plan.  Much  of  the  interest 
of  humanity  lies  in  the  diversity  of  gift  and 
power.  There  is  much  in  our  modern  civili- 
zation which  tends  to  force  men  and  women 
into  the  same  mold,  and  make  everybody 
simply  an  ape  of  somebody  else. 

There  is  a  picture  which  has  attracted  a 
great  deal  of  attention  recently  on  the  conti- 
nent of  Europe,  which  has  given  a  very  pain- 
ful impression  to  many  people  who  have 
studied  it.  The  picture  represents  a  youth 
in  the  very  flower  of  his  age  grasped  by  a 
monster  whose  arms  seem  like  walls  of  iron 
all  around  him.  The  youth  is  helpless  in 
the  grasp  of  the  giant,  and  is  bowing  his 
head  in  a  sort  of  resigned  despair.  It  is 
useless  to  struggle !  Men  have  felt  the  truth 
of  that  picture.  There  is  a  truth  in  it. 
There  is  much  in  our  modern  civilization 
that  presses  on  life.  There  are  influences 
laid  upon  us  all,  the  effect  of  which  is  to 
obstruct  the  free  development  of  our  indi- 


lie  TEE  WORLD'S  CHILDHOOD 

viduality  and  to  squeeze  out  of  us  that 
divine  gift  of  personality  which  makes  one 
person  different  from  another.  We  should 
seek  in  dealing  with  children  and  youth  com- 
ing under  our  guidance,  and  in  the  develop- 
ment of  our  own  natures,  to  give  freedom  to 
the  original  bent  and  talent  with  which  God 
has  endowed  the  human  soul. 


II 


We  should  see  the  interest  which  belongs 
to  youth  that  has  as  yet  untried  possibilities 
in  it.  The  new  lands  are  interesting  not 
because  of  what  they  are,  but  because  of 
their  promise.  Dawson,  the  scientist,  re- 
ferring to  the  statement  in  connection  with 
this  text  that  '^God  saw  that  it  was  good,'* 
comments  that  to  our  view  that  primeval 
dry  land  would  scarcely  have  seemed  good. 
It  was  a  world  of  bare,  rocky  peaks  and 
verdureless  valleys — ^here  active  volcanoes, 
with  their  heaps  of  scoria  and  scarcely 
cooled  lava  currents,  there  vast  mud  flats, 
recently  upheaved  from  the  bottom  of  the 
waters,  nowhere  even  a  blade  of  grass,  or  a 


TEE  BIBTR  OF  INDIVIDUALITY  117 

clinging  lichen.  Yet  it  was  good  in  the 
view  of  its  Maker,  who  could  see  it  in  re- 
lation to  the  uses  for  which  He  had  made  it, 
and  as  a  fit  preparatory  step  to  the  new 
wonders  He  was  soon  to  introduce.  The 
opportunity  to  live  and  work  out  God's  pur- 
pose in  us  in  the  world  is  a  priceless  privi- 
lege. Every  youth  should  realize  that  he 
is  a  separate  individual  study  and  creation 
of  Almighty  God,  intended  to  fulfil  a  mis- 
sion among  men,  to  do  work  which  in  some 
high  and  noble  sense,  which  we  can  not  fully 
understand,  no  one  else  will  ever  be  able 
to  do — work  which  if  he  fails  to  do  must  re- 
main undone  forever.  The  violet  is  a  very 
delicate  little  blossom,  but  how  distinctly 
poorer  the  world  would  be  in  flowers  if  it 
refused  to  bloom.  The  song  thrush  is  a 
little  bird,  but  if  it  ceased  to  sing  the 
woods  would  be  perceptibly  impoverished  of 
song.  So  God  has  given  to  each  one  of  us 
some  power  to  wake  music  thati  is  needed 
in  the  great  orchestra  of  human  life,  and 
every  one  of  us  who  fails  to  do  our  work 
at  the  very  best  in  some  way  mars  the 
divine  harmony.  To  every  human  heart 
there  is  given  the  spiritual  soil  out  of  which 


118  TEE  WOELD'JS  CEILDHOOI) 

there  may  come  a  blossom  of  spiritual 
beauty  having  a  fragrance  all  its  own,  and 
if  our  hearts  are  so  closed  to  the  wooing  of 
the  heavenly  sunshine  that  they  do  not  bloom 
or  yield  their  fragrance,  we  are  robbing 
God  and  mankind.  We  talk  about  the  fear 
of  death.  Life  is  much  more  a  thing  to 
stand  in  awe  of.  Let  us  stand  before  each 
day  of  life  with  that  enthusiasm  and  ro- 
mantic feeling  which  belong  to  new  discovery 
and  opportunities  to  do  great  things  that 
shall  be  of  blessing  to  the  world.  The  worst 
thing  that  can  happen  to  us  is  to  have  these 
ever  budding  opportunities  with  the  dawn 
of  every  day,  and  yet  fail  to  accomplish 
what  with  God^s  help  we  could  accomplish. 
A  wasted  life  is  the  most  terrible  outlook 
of  which  any  man  can  dream.  The  poet 
truly  says ; 

Men  think  it  is  an  awful  sight 

To  see  a  soul  just  set  adrift 
On  that  drear  voyage  from  whose  night 

The  ominous  shadows  never  lift; 
But  'tis  more  awful  to  behold 

A  helpless  infant  newly  born, 
Whose  little  hands  unconscious  hold 

The  keys  of  darkness  and  of  morn. 


TEE  BIBTH  OF  INDIVIDUALITY  119 

Mine  held  them  once :  I  flung  away 

Those  keys  that  might  have  open  set 
The  golden  sluices  of  the  day, 

But  clutch  the  keys  of  darkness  yet ; 
I  hear  the  reapers  singing  go 

Into  God's  harvest:  I,  that  might 
With  them  have  chosen,  here  below 

Grope  shuddering  at  the  gates  of  night. 

O  glorious  youth,  that  once  was  mine! 

0  high  ideal!  all  in  vain 
Ye  enter  at  this  ruined  shrine 

Whence  worship  ne  'er  shall  rise  again ; 
The  bat  and  owl  inhabit  here, 

The  snake  nests  in  the  altar-atone, 
The  sacred  vessels  molder  near, 

The  image  of  the  God  is  gone. 


in 

We  should  learn  that  everything  is  possi- 
ble in  beauty  and  usefulness  where  there  is 
God  and  a  fresh  soil.  There  is  here  on  this 
bleak  new  land  neither  grass  nor  trees,  but 
given  a  soil,  and  God  to  brood  over  it,  and 
there  are  grassy  hillsides,  and  daisies  and 
buttercups,  and  fragrant  lilies,  with  violets 
nestling  in  the  shadows,  and  wild  straw- 
berries blushing  in  the  sun.    Here  are  only 


120  THE  WORLD'S  CHILDHOOD 

bleak  mountain  sides,  and  dark,  desolate 
canons,  but  with  God  to  brood  over  them  there 
are  soon  evergreen  forests  of  pine  and  fir 
and  cedar  and  hemlock  and  spruce,  and 
foothills  covered  with  oak,  and  dark  damp 
places  adorned  with  cottonwood  and  ash  and 
willow.  At  the  heart  of  the  canons  there 
are  streams  of  water  which  ever  and  anon 
flash  into  waterfalls.  These  gather  them- 
selves together  as  they  near  the  valleys,  and 
a  river  pours  forth  through  the  plains.  Let 
us  learn  the  great  lesson  of  all  this.  Poverty 
— that  is,  lack  of  money,  lack  of  friends, 
lack  of  knowledge  of  the  world,  lack  of  ac- 
cumulation— is  nothing  if  there  is  the  fresh, 
open  mind,  the  open  sincere  heart  over 
which  God  may  brood  and  find  complete 
surrender  to  follow  His  guidance  and  do 
His  bidding.  A  young  man  or  woman  may 
stand  at  the  gate  of  life  as  poor  as  Abraham 
Lincoln  in  the  backwoods  of  Illinois.  There 
may  not  seem  to  be  much  opportunity  for 
influence  or  power  to  bless  the  world,  but 
if,  as  in  Lincoln's  case,  there  is  an  open 
mind  and  a  heart  sensitive  to  God's  call 
to  duty,  then  all  things  are  possible.  God 
is  always  able  to  make  any  man  or  woman  a 


THE  BIBTH  OF  INDIVIDUALITY  121 

towering  blessing  to  the  world  if  he  or  she 
is  completely  obedient  to  Him.  He  can 
take  a  man  with  as  little  brains  as  Uncle 
John  Vassar  and  make  him  of  greater 
blessing  to  the  world  than  a  hundred  intel- 
lectual giants  living  at  the  same  time,  if 
he  be  completely  surrendered  to  Him.  It 
is  God  and  the  mountain,  it  is  God  and  the 
valley,  that  produce  forest  and  field  and 
meadow. 

Dr.  Watkinson,  in  one  of  his  recent 
sermons,  declares  that  all  that  is  great  in 
our  spiritual  life,  as  in  our  intellectual  life, 
is  of  God's  free  grace  to  a  soul  open  to 
receive  it,  and  he  comments  on  the  fact  that 
people  do  not  like  a  gift.  It  is  the  last 
thing  anybody  will  acknowledge.  You  do 
not  like  a  gift.  If  you  can  get  up  a  testi- 
monial for  a  man,  you  fancy  you  are  giving 
him  something,  but  a  man  has  a  great  deal 
of  sophistry  inside  him  on  occasions,  that 
explains  that  a  gift  is  not  a  gift.  He  says, 
*^I  am  glad  that  they  have  found  my  merit 
out  at  last;  they  have  been  a  long  time 
about  it,  but  I  take  it  as  a  recognition  of 
my  merit."  So  you  do  not  like  a  gift,  and 
the  natural  man  does  not  like  the  free  grace 


122  TRE  WORLD'S  CHILDHOOD 

of  God.  ^*No,''  you  say,  ^Hhere  is  not 
anything  exactly  like  that  in  nature.*'  But 
there  is.  Did  Milton  work  himself  up  to 
that  music  of  his!  Did  Shakespeare,  by  the 
slavery  of  his  study  of  dramatic  units,  be- 
come a  great  dramatist?  Did  Gainsborough 
become  a  great  painter  by  drudgery?  I 
am  not  saying  they  did  not  work  and  toil, 
but  I  am  saying  that  over  and  above  all  their 
work  there  was  the  free  grace  of  God  in 
genius,  and  what  we  call  genius  in  the 
intellectual  world  is  what  we  call  free  grace 
in  the  spiritual  world.  Shakespeare,  Milton, 
Turner,  Lincoln,  and  a  hundred  others  the 
world  will  never  forget,  were  given  great 
powers  of  God.  They  dared  to  write,  and 
to  paint,  and  to  lift  on  humanity's  burdens 
out  of  the  strength  God  gave  them,  and  so 
they  wrought  for  all  time.  My  friends,  the 
secret  of  great  spiritual  blessing  and  power 
is  right  here.  Dare  to  trust  God.  Surrender 
your  heart  and  life  completely  to  Him,  and 
God  will  wonderfully  glorify  and  beautify 
your  nature.  Flowers  shall  bloom  in  your 
soul,  and  all  about  you  shall  call  you  blest. 
It  is  pitiful  when  we  think  how  little  we  are 
compared  to  what  we  ought  to  be  when  we 


THE  BIBTH  OF  INDIVIDUALITY  123 

take  into  consideration  our  opportunities  and 
traditions.  We  who  were  born  of  parents 
whose  ancestors  have  been  Christians  for 
generations !  We  with  the  blood  of  mission- 
aries and  Christian  heroes  in  our  veins! 
How  pitiful  that  we  with  all  this  Christian 
heritage,  and  who  have  been  so  well  taught 
in  Sunday-school  and  church,  with  our 
minds  illuminated  with  so  much  of  the 
gospel  truth,  should  have  so  little  spiritual 
vitality,  so  little  spiritual  fire  wherewith  to 
warm  the  world.  All  that  is  necessary  is 
that  we  should  here  and  now  hold  ourselves 
completely  surrendered  to  the  free  grace  of 
God,  that  the  heavenly  fire  may  ignite  and 
cause  to  break  forth  into  blaze  the  gospel 
truth  with  which  we  are  already  charged. 
I  was  living  in  New  York  City  at  the  time 
of  the  burning  of  a  great  hotel.  The  clerk 
in  the  office  said  he  looked  to  the  end  of  the 
corridor,  seventy-five  feet  away,  and  fire 
was  breaking  out  there.  He  turned  to  put 
his  books  in  the  safe,  and  noticed  that  in 
the  rear  of  the  building,  fifty  feet  distant, 
fire  appeared  also.  And  there  was  evidence 
that  on  the  floor  above,  at  another  end  of  the 
hotel,  flames  were  bursting  out  at  the  same 


124  THE  WORLD'S  CHILDHOOD 

time.  The  only  plausible  explanation  was 
that  the  installation  of  the  electric  wires 
had  given  out  all  over  the  building;  short 
circuits  at  many  separate  points  had  re- 
sulted; an  unusual  charge  of  electricity 
from  the  power-house  had  kindled  a  dozen 
fires  at  once.  My  friends,  our  whole  being 
in  mind  and  heart  is  wired  for  the  heavenly 
electricity.  The  prayers  we  learned  to  say 
at  mother's  knee,  the  Christian  hymns  we 
learned  to  sing  before  we  could  talk  plainly, 
the  promises  of  God's  Word  stored  up  in 
our  minds  in  our  very  babyhood,  all  the 
teachings  and  influence  of  Sunday-school 
and  church,  of  sermons  and  prayers  all 
our  lives,  have  been  wiring  our  whole  per- 
sonality for  the  conduct  of  divine  influence, 
AH  that  is  wanting  is  that  that  inner  power 
of  our  individuality,  our  power  of  response 
and  choice,  shall  look  up  to  God  and  cry: 

Oh,  that  in  me  the  sacred  fire 
Might  now  begin  to  glow, 

Oh,  that  it  now  from  heaven  might  fall, 
And  all  my  sins  consume! 
Come,  Holy  Ghost,  for  Thee  I  call; 
Spirit  of  burning,  come ! 


THE   SEA  AND  ITS   SAILORS 

'*The  gathering  together  of  the   waters   called     he 
seas." — Gen.  1 :  10. 

SHE  who  wrote  the  popular  song,  ** Rocked 
in  the  Cradle  of  the  Deep,"  wrote  with 
perhaps  greater  wisdom  than  she  knew,  for 
the  sea  is  God's  cradle  for  humanity.  The 
whole  world  is  rocked  in  safety  and  abun- 
dance and  comfort  on  the  lap  of  the  sea.  The 
sea  is  the  storehouse  of  the  world — a  store- 
house which  is  inexhaustible  and  which  no 
famine  or  drought  can  ever  strike.  Few 
people  appreciate  what  a  vast  concourse  of 
life  is  going  on  in  the  sea.  It  is  said  that 
the  life  in  the  sea  far  exceeds  all  that  is 
outside  of  it.  There  are  nearly  thirty 
thousand  species  of  living  beings  in  the  sea 
which  are  known  to  man.  A  very  large  part 
of  the  food  of  the  world  is  taken  out  of  the 
sea  direct.  In  Norway  four  hundred  million 
of  a  single  species  have  been  taken  in  one 
season;  in  Sweden,  seven  hundred  millions, 
and  so  all  around  the  globe  all  people  go 

125 


126  TEE  WORLD'S  CHILDHOOD 

to  the  sea  for  a  very  large  proportion  of 
their  food. 

The  sea  is  the  power-house  of  the  world — 
for  it  is  not  the  rivers  which  keep  the  sea 
going;  it  is  the  sea  which  keeps  the  rivers 
going.  All  the  water  in  our  mountain 
streams,  as  well  as  in  our  great  rivers, 
comes  from  the  sea.  They  are  entirely  sup- 
plied by  the  vapor  always  rising  from  the 
ocean,  which  is  carried  by  the  winds  over 
the  tops  of  the  mountains,  where  in  God's 
great  condensers  it  is  distilled  and  falls  in 
snow  or  rain  upon  the  summits  of  the  high 
hills.  So  it  is  not  the  rivers  that  fill  the 
sea,  but  the  sea  that  fills  the  rivers.  Some 
inland  farmer,  two  thousand  miles  from 
the  ocean,  relying  on  his  irrigation  ditch 
filled  at  the  mountain  stream,  may'  think 
that  he  is  independent  of  the  sea;  but  he  is 
not,  for  every  drop  of  the  precious,  life- 
giving  fluid  which  gives  verdure  to  his 
pastures,  richness  to  his  meadows,  and 
apples  to  his  orchards,  is  the  gift  of  the 
sea,  and  would  be  impossible  without  it. 
So  it  is  the  sea  that  turns  all  the  mill-wheels, 
and  drives  all  the  looms  and  locomotives 
throughout  the  land. 


TEE  SEA  AND  ITS  SAILORS  127 

It  is  the  sea  that  controls  the  temperature 
of  the  world.  It  does  it  just  like  a  modern 
hot- water  plant  in  one  of  our  great  homes  or 
business  buildings.  It  sends  the  hot  water 
up  into  the  skies,  lets  it  condense  and  come 
back  again  down  through  the  streams,  so 
moderating  the  temperature  of  the  earth. 
The  sea  is  the  basement  of  the  world,  the 
proper  place  for  a  hot-water  plant,  and  its 
currents  in  still  other  ways  determine 
climate.  A  warm  current  sweeping  through 
the  ocean  can  change  what  would  otherwise 
be  a  frigid  zone  into  temperate  or  tropical 
fertility.  If  it  were  not  for  this  modifying 
influence  of  the  sea,  human  life  could  never 
have  been  maintained  on  the  earth. 

The  health  of  the  world  depends  upon 
the  sea.  The  decay  and  death  which  is 
going  on  in  all  parts  of  the  world  would 
make  it  a  pest-house  in  a  very  brief  time, 
full  of  pestilence  that  would  destroy  all 
animal  life,  if  it  were  not  that  the  sea  is 
ceaselessly  at  work  purifying  the  atmosphere 
and  sending  wholesome  breezes  across  the 
land.  Without  the  sea  there  could  be  no 
drainage.  The  ocean  receives  the  sewage 
of  the  globe,  and  extracts  its  poison,  and 


128  TBE  WORLD'S  CHILDHOOD 

purifies  it  so  that  the  winds  which  would 
otherwise  be  the  messengers  of  death  become 
the  ministers  of  mercy  and  the  very  breath 
of  life. 

The  sea  is  the  highway  of  the  world.  It 
is  covered  by  innumerable  roads.  Take  a 
great  marine  map  and  you  will  be  astonished 
to  note  the  ship-trails  that  are  marked  on 
it.  We  talk  about  the  trackless  sea,  but  it 
has  plainly  marked  routes  over  which  ships 
come  and  go  with  their  rich  cargoes  and 
their  richer  freightage  of  human  life  almost 
with  the  regularity  of  a  city  ferry.  Instead 
of  being  a  barrier  between  the  nations,  the 
sea  is  a  great  highway  which  brings  them 
closer  together.  And  in  our  day  the  com- 
merce of  the  world  is  having  a  very  large 
share  in  the  civilization  of  mankind.  The 
common  needs  of  men  are  coming  to  be 
recognized  rapidly  through  the  agency  of  the 
sea,  which  breaks  down  all  barriers  between 
the  nations. 

So  it  is  that  there  is  not  a  spot  on  the 
globe,  high  or  low,  that  does  not  receive 
some  blessing  from  the  sea.  What  a  wonder- 
ful illustration  of  the  sleepless  providence 
of  God,  who  created  the  earth  and  the  sea. 


TEE  SEA  AND  ITS  SAILOES  129 

and  has  made  this  world  the  home  of  man- 
kind, and  is  forever  looking  after  His  child 
and  causing  all  things  to  work  together  for 
his  good.  Some  poet  sings  of  God  as  the 
Great  Weaver,  with  the  world  for  His  loom. 
He  says: 


See  the  mystic  Weaver  sitting 
High  in  heaven,  His  loom  below. 
Up  and  down  the  treadles  go; 
Takes,  for  webs,  the  world's  dark  ages, 
Takes  the  nobles  and  their  pages, 
Takes  all  stations  and  all  stages. 


Thrones  are  bobbins  in  His  shuttle, 
Armies  make  them  scud  and  scutth 
Web  into  the  woof  must  flow 
Up  and  down  the  nations  go! 
At  the  Weaver's  will  they  go! 


Calmly  see  the  mystic  Weaver 
Throw  His  shuttle  to  and  fro ; 
'Mid  the  noise  and  wild  confusion, 
Well  the  Weaver  seems  to  know 
What  each  motion  and  commotion, 
What  each  fusion,  and  confusion, 
In  the  grand  result  will  show : 


130  TEE  WORLD'S  CHILDHOOD 

Glorious  wonder!    What  a  weaving! 
To  the  dull  beyond  believing. 
Such  no  fabled  ages  know, 
Only  faith  can  see  the  mystery, 
How,  along  the  isles  of  history. 
Where  the  feet  of  sages  go. 
Loveliest  to  the  fairest  eyes. 
Grand  the  mystic  tapet  lies: 
Soft  and  smooth  and  every  spreading, 
As  if  made  for  angel 's  treading — 
Tufted  circles  touching  ever; 
Every  figure  has  its  plaidings, 
Brighter  forms  and  softer  shadings, 
Each  illumined — what  a  riddle — 
From  6-  cross  that  gems  the  middle. 

*Tis  a  saying — some  reject  it — 
That  its  light  is  all  reflected ; 
That  the  tapet  lines  are  given 
By  a  sun  that  shines  in  heaven: 
'Tis  believed — by  all  believing — 
That  great  God  Himself  is  weaving. 
Bringing  out  the  world's  dark  mystery. 
In  the  light  of  faith  and  history ; 
And,  as  web  and  wool  diminish. 
Comes  the  grand  and  glorious  finish, 
When  begin  the  golden  ages, 
Long  foretold  by  seers  and  sages. 


THE  SEA  AND  ITS  SAILORS  131 


We  can  not  study  the  sea  without  having 
suggested  to  us  that  stirring  figure  which 
we  use  so  often,  in  which  human  life  is 
compared  to  a  voyage,  and  our  destiny  be- 
comes the  port  toward  which  we  are  sail- 
ing. Job,  in  his  day  of  trial,  speaking  of 
the  rapid  passing  of  human  life,  declared 
that  his  days  up  to  that  time  had  **  passed 
away  as  the  swift  ships.''  The  writer  of 
the  Book  of  Proverbs,  in  his  graphic  and 
wonderful  picture  of  a  wise  woman  and 
her  resources  for  blessing  others,  says,  **She 
is  like  the  merchants'  ships."  We  are  all 
voyagers,  sailing  toward  the  future.  We 
carry  different  cargoes,  and  sail  under  dif- 
ferent flags,  and  the  port  we  have  in  view 
and  our  hopes  concerning  it  differ  widely 
indeed.  We  often  look  at  men  and  women 
who  are  strangers  to  us  and  wonder  whither 
they  are  sailing,  what  spiritual  cargo  they 
carry,  and  to  what  haven  their  souls  aspire. 
Wordsworth  has  painted  a  very  striking 
picture  of  thoughts  that  rose  in  his  mind  on 
seeing  a  ship  start  forth  on  its  voyage: 


132  THE  WOBLD*S  CHILDHOOD 

With  ships  the  sea  was  sprinkled  far  and  nigh 

Like  stars  in  heaven,  and  joyously  it  showed; 

Some  lying  fast  at  anchor  in  the  road, 

Some  veering  up  and  down,  one  knew  not  why, 

A  goodly  Vessel  did  I  then  espy 

Come   like   a  giant   from   a  haven  broad; 

And   lustily   along   the   bay   she   strode. 

Her   tackling   rich,   and   of   apparel   high. 

This  Ship  was  naught  to  me,  nor  I  to  her, 

Yet  I  pursued  her  with  a  Lover's  look; 

This  Ship  to  all  the  rest  I  did  prefer: 

When  will  she  turn,  and  whither?    She  will  brook 

No  tarrying:  where  she  comes  the  wind  must  stir; 

On  went  she,  and  due  north  her  journey  took. 


Where  lies  the  land  to  which  yon  Ship  must  go? 
Fresh  as  a  lark  mounting  at  break  of  day 
Festively  she  puts  forth  in  trim  array; 
Is  she  for  tropic  suns;  or  polar  snow? 
What  boots  the  inquiry? — Neither  friend  nor  foe 
She  cares  for;  let  her  travel  where  she  may 
She  finds  familiar  friends,  a  beaten  way 
Ever  before  her,  and  a  wind  to  blow. 
Yet  still  I  ask,  what  haven  is  her  mark? 
And,  almost  as  it  was  when  ships  were  rare 
(From  time  to  time,  like  Pilgrims,  here  and  there 
Crossing  the  waters),  doubt,  and  something  dark, 
Of  the  old  Sea  some  reverential  fear 
Is  with  me  at  thy  farewell,  joyous  Bark! 


THE  SEA  AND  ITS  SAILOBS  133 

Our  discussion  will  be  of  little  avail  unless 
it  awakens  in  our  hearts  earnest  questionings 
in  regard  to  our  own  voyage  of  life.  Whither 
are  we  sailing?  Who  stands  as  the  captain 
at  the  wheel  of  our  life-ship  ?  To  what  haven 
do  we  carry  papers  and  cargo?  It  is  our 
most  precious  privilege  to  have  Christ  in 
the  ship  with  us.  In  such  a  case  we  may 
be  sure  that  no  storm  can  overcome  us. 
Once  when  Christ  was  on  earth  He  was  in 
the  ship  with  His  friends,  and  when  the 
storm  arose  and  they  were  greatly  fright- 
ened and  besought  His  interest,  He  spoke 
peace  to  the  waves,  and  they  marveled  that 
the  very  winds  and  the  sea  obeyed  Him.  Is 
Christ  with  you  in  the  ship?  If  He  is  not. 
He  is  not  far  away  and,  if  you  will  call 
for  Him,  He  will  answer.  On  one  occasion, 
when  the  friends  of  Christ  were  on  the  sea 
at  night,  and  a  great  storm  came  up  that 
threatened  them  with  shipwreck,  Jesus  was 
watching  from  the  land,  and  when  He  saw 
their  danger  He  came  walking  across  the 
waves,  and  when  He  drew  near  they  were 
frightened,  and  thought  they  saw  His  ghost, 
and  they  cried  out  that  it  was  a  spirit, 
but  Jesus  said  to  them :  *  ^  Lo !  it  is  I ;  be  not 


134  THE  WOULD 'S  CHILDHOOD 

afraid.  ^^  And  He  came  into  the  vessel,  and 
at  His  word  the  storm  was  calmed,  and  they 
soon  came  to  the  land  in  peace.  I  doubt  not 
I  speak  to  some  of  you  now  who  are  in  the 
midst  of  the  storm.  With  you,  as  with 
those  early  disciples,  the  winds  are  con- 
trary. The  night  is  dark,  the  waves  of 
trouble  run  high  about  your  ship.  It  seems 
to  you  as  tho  shipwreck  of  your  fondest 
hopes  and  plans  were  certain.  Oh,  my  friend, 
across  the  sea  of  your  troubles,  of  your 
sorrows,  yes,  even  of  your  sins,  Christ 
comes  walking  to-night,  and  He  is  saying 
to  you  through  the  message  of  His  Word, 
**Lo!  it  is  I;  be  not  afraid. '^ 

Let  us  ask  again  whither  are  we  sailing 
and  what  haven  beyond  the  grave  do  we  hope 
to  enter?  Henry  Van  Dyke,  in  his  beautiful 
little  book,  ^* Ships  and  Havens,''  declares 
that  the  passion  of  immortality  is  the  thing 
that  immortalizes  our  being.  To  be  in  love 
with  heaven  is  the  surest  way  to  be  fitted  for 
it.  Desire  is  the  magnetic  force  of  charac- 
ter. Character  is  the  compass  of  life.  Let 
us  put  this  question  very  simply  to  the 
depth  of  the  soul  as  tho  it  was  put  to  each 
man  and  woman  among  us. 


THE  SEA  AND  ITS  SAILORS  135 

What  is  your  desired  haven  beyond  the 
grave?  It  is  for  you  to  choose.  There  are 
no  secret  books  of  fate  in  which  your  course 
is  traced  and  your  destiny  irrevocably  ap- 
pointed. There  is  only  the  Lamb^s  book 
of  life,  in  which  new  names  are  being  written 
every  day,  as  new  hearts  turn  from  dark- 
ness to  light  and  from  the  kingdom  of  Satan 
to  the  kingdom  of  God.  No  ship  that  sails 
the  sea  is  as  free  to  make  for  her  port 
as  you  are  to  seek  the  haven  that  your 
inmost  soul  desires.  And  if  your  choice  is 
right,  if  your  desire  is  real,  so  that  you 
will  steer  and  strive  with  God's  help  to 
reach  the  goal,  you  shall  never  be  wrecked 
or  lost,  and  it  shall  be  said  of  you  as  of 
those  of  whom  the  psalmist  speaks,  ^*So 
he  bringeth  them  unto  their  desired  haven." 
Longfellow  sings: 

Like  unto  ships  far  off  at  sea, 

Outward  or  homeward  bound,  are  we. 

Before,  behind,  and  all  around, 

Floats  and  swings  the  horizon's  bound, 

Seems  at  its  distant  rim  to  rise 

And  climb  the  crystal  wall  of  the  skies, 

And  then  again  to  turn  and  sink 

As  if  we  could  slide  from  its  outer  brink. 


136  TEE  WOBLD'S  CHILDHOOD 

Ah !  it  is  not  the  sea, 

It  is  not   the  sea  that  sinks  and  shelves, 

But  ourselves 

That  rock  and  rise 

With  endless  and  uneasy  motion, 

Now  touching  the  very  skies. 

Now  sinking  into  the  depths  of  ocean. 

Ah !  if  our  souls  but  poise  and  swing 

Like  the  compass  in  its  brazen  ring. 

Ever  level  and  ever  true 

To  the  toil  and  the  task  we  have  to  do. 

We    shall    sail    securely,    and    safely   reach 

The  Fortunate  Isles,  on  whose  shining  beach 

The  sights  we  see,  and  the  sounds  we  hear, 

Will  be  those  of  joy  and  not  of  fear. 


THE  EOMANCE  OF  THE  FIELDS 

''And  the  earth  brought  forth  grass,  and  herb  yield- 
ing seed  after  his  kind,  and  the  tree  yielding  fruit, 
whose  seed  was  in  himself,  after  his  kind,  and  God 
saw  that  it  was  good. ' ' — Gen.  1 :  12. 

WE  are  at  an  interesting  point  in  the 
biography  of  the  world.  The  days 
of  chaos  have  long  passed.  The  waters 
have  gathered  themselves  together  in  the 
basement  of  the  globe  and  formed  the  great 
seas.  Mountains  have  been  heaved  into  the 
sky,  and  deep  canons  and  long  slopes  and 
new-born  rivers  add  picturesqueness  and 
grandeur  to  the  topography  of  the  world. 
But  yet  it  is  a  dead  world,  for  there  is  no 
life  upon  which  the  eye  and  the  heart  may 
fasten.  But  God^s  purposes  are  now  taking 
shape,  and  grass  is  sprouting  in  the  valleys 
and  on  the  hillsides,  and  the  barren  earth 
is  turning  green  in  the  sun.  Daisies,  like 
summer  snowflakes,  mingle  with  buttercups, 
yellow  as  the  sun  from  which  they  draw 
their   gold.     Lilies   spring   up   in   the   low 

137 


138  TEE  WOBLB'S  CHILDHOOD 

lands,  and  gorgeous  poppies  fill  the  valleys 
with  glory.  Trees  are  leaving  forth  in  the 
ravines,  and  the  whole  world  from  the  brink 
of  the  sea  to  the  top  of  the  mountain  is 
being  beautified  and  glorified  by  grass  and 
flowering  plants  and  growing  trees  and 
delicate  mosses. 


Our  theme  can  not  help  but  suggest  to  us 
God^s  love  for  beauty.  He  has  not  only 
clothed  the  world,  but  in  ten  thousand  ways 
He  has  made  it  beautiful.  It  would  have 
been  possible  to  have  created  fertile  soil 
and  fruit-bearing  plants  without  beauty.  But 
God  loves  beauty,  and  this  love  of  beauty 
blushes  in  the  cheek  of  the  strawberry  and 
the  apple,  whitens  in  the  cotton  field,  grows 
crimson  in  the  autumn  leaves,  and  dazzlingly 
glorious  in  the  sunset.  We  should  learn 
from  this  that  if  God  cares  so  much  about 
beauty,  and  is  so  careful  in  the  creation  of 
the  most  common  things  to  clothe  them 
with  beauty,  we  should  not  only  do  the 
things  that  are  necessary,  should  not  only 


THE  BOMANCE  OF  THE  FIELDS  139 

hold  ourselves  responsible  to  be  just  and 
honest,  but  we  should  hold  ourselves  under 
bonds  to  be  honest  and  just  in  a  beautiful 
way.  It  is  not  enough  that  we  are  good; 
we  must  be  good  beautifully  and  graciously. 
If  God  qares  so  much  about  beauty  that  He 
makes  tfie  heart  of  the  maple-tree,  hidden 
away  in  the  depths  of  the  forest,  more  beauti- 
ful in  its  grain  than  any  skilled  human  work- 
man can  approach;  if  God  cares  enough 
about  beauty  to  cover  the  ugly  rocks  in  the 
mountain  solitudes  with  delicate  mosses;  to 
fill  the  skies  with  cloud-pictures,  the  despair 
of  the  artist;  to  make  the  harvest  fields  of 
toil  green  and  white  and  golden  in  their 
loveliness ;  to  make  the  winter  world  spotless 
as  an  angel's  wing;  to  make  the  dying  world 
of  autumn  magnificent  beyond  description; 
to  make  the  midnight  sky  like  a  vestibule 
to  heaven;  to  make  every  morning  sunrise 
and  every  evening's  sunset  like  a  hallelujah 
chorus  of  angels;  if  beauty  means  as  much 
as  this  to  God,  how  dare  we  imagine  for  a 
moment  that  it  is  not  important  in  His 
sight  that  we  should  be  careful  that  our  lives 
are  clothed  with  beauty?  Some  one  sings 
this  truth  most  inspiringly : 


140  THE  WORLD'S  CHILDHOOD 

The  grace  of  friendship,  mind  and  heart 

Linked  with  their  fellow  heart  and  mind; 
The  gains  of  science,  gifts  of  art; 

The  sense  of  oneness  with  our  kind ; 
The  thirst  to  know  and  understand — 

A  large  and  liberal  discontent; 
These  are  the  goods  in  life's  rich  hand, 

The  things  that  are  more  excellent. 

In  faultless  rhythm  the  ocean  rolls, 

A  rapturous  silence  thrills  the  skies; 
And  on  this  earth  are  lovely  souls, 

That  softly  look  with  aidful  eyes 
Tho  dark,  0  God,  Thy  course  and  track, 

I  think  Thou  must  at  least  have  meant 
That  nought  which  lives  should  wholly  lack 

The  things  that  are  more  excellent. 


II 


God  links  beauty  with  service.  The  world 
is  so  beautiful  that  sometimes  people  are 
led  to  think  most  of  that,  as  tho  that  was 
the  only  thing  God  had  in  mind;  but  in  all 
beauty  God  has  a  thought  of  service.  The 
grass  that  covers  the  hillsides  and  the 
meadows,  the  grain  which  springs  up  in  the 
fields,  and  the  trees  growing  in  the  forest  are 
all  beautiful,  but  they  are  the  more  beautiful 


TEE  BOMANCE  OF  THE  FIELDS  141 

since  they  also  serve.  No  human  life  can 
be  long  beautiful  without  service,  and  service 
rendered  with  highest  motive  is  sure  to 
become  beautiful.  I  was  reading  recently 
the  story  of  Elizabeth  Frye.  It  was  when 
she  was  a  thoughtless  girl  of  seventeen 
years,  used  to  all  the  refinement  of  luxury 
and  a  life  of  ease,  that  God  came  to  her 
through  the  voice  of  a  Quaker  preacher.  She 
consecrated  her  life  to  God.  It  became  her 
very  meat  and  drink  to  do  the  will  of  Christ. 
When  she  was  sixty-five  years  of  age  she 
wrote:  ** Since  my  heart  was  touched,  at 
the  age  of  seventeen,  I  believe  I  have  never 
awakened  from  sleep,  in  sickness  or  in  health, 
by  day  or  by  night,  without  my  first  waking 
thought  being  how  best  I  might  serve  my 
Lord. ' '  Such  a  life  could  not  help  but  become 
beautiful.  God  sent  her  among  the  outcast,  and 
her  life  became  a  constant  benediction.  The 
work  she  began  in  Great  Britain  among 
female  convicts  spread  all  over  the  continent 
of  Europe.  Letters  from  crowned  heads,  as 
well  as  from  philanthropic  people  in  the 
common  walks  of  life,  began  to  pour  in,  in- 
viting her  to  visit  the  prisons  of  other  lands ; 
and     subsequently     she     visited     Scotland, 


142  THE  WOELD'S  CHILDHOOD 

France,  Germany,  and  other  countries  upon 
this  errand  of  mercy,  everywhere  hailed  as 
an  angel  of  peace  and  good  mil  to  men. 
She  was  changed  from  a  thoughtless, 
frivolous  girl  into  a  woman  of  great  use- 
fulness and  power,  whose  life  was  given 
permanent  beauty  because  she  gave  herself 
unstintedly  to  service.  Such  opportunities 
as  came  to  Elizabeth  Frye  may  not  come  to 
us,  but  we  can  live  in  the  same  spirit  of 
willingness  to  serve  Christ  and  our  fellow- 
men,  and  if  we  do  so,  the  same  beauty  of 
character  will  come  to  us.    Some  one  sings : 

I  may  not  reach  the  heights  I  seek, 
My  untried  strength  may  fail  me; 

Or,  half-way  up  the  mountain  peak, 
Fierce  tempests  may  assail  me. 

But   tho  that  place  I  never  gain, 

Herein  lies  comfort  for  my  pain — 
I  will  be  worthy  of  it. 

I  may  not  triumph  in  success. 

Despite  my  earnest  labor, 
I  may  not  grasp  results  that  bless 

The  efforts  of  my  neighbor, 
But  tho  that  goal  I  never  see, 
This  thought  shall  always  dwell  with  me — 
I  will  be  worthy  of  it. 


THE  ROMANCE  OF  THE  FIELDS  143 

The  golden  glory  of  love's  light 

May  never  fall  upon  my  way. 
My  path  may  lead  through  shadowed  night, 

Like  some  deserted  byway. 
But  tho  life's  dearest  joy  I  miss, 
There  lies  a  nameless  strength  in  this — 
I  will  be  worthy  of  it. 


Ill 


Here  is  the  birth  of  the  law  of  heredity. 
**  Whatsoever  a  man  soweth,  that  shall  he 
also  reap,"  is  a  doctrine  born  on  these 
first  fields  planted  by  the  hand  of  God. 
As  the  man  who  sows  oats  does  not  expect 
to  reap  thistles,  and  the  man  who  sows 
thorns  need  not  hope  to  reap  wheat;  so  in 
mental  and  spiritual  things  everything  yields 
after  its  kind.  It  is  true  of  our  thoughts. 
Some  people  imagine  their  mind  is  like  a 
wild,  untamed  steed  that  can  not  be  bridled 
or  harnessed,  and  that  what  we  think  is  of 
no  moment.  But  there  can  be  no  greater 
folly  than  that.  The  Bible  assumes  that  we 
have  the  power  to  control  our  thinking.  Dr. 
Ossian  Davies  says  that  our  thoughts  are 
as  truly  under  our  control  as  are  our  arms 


144  THE  WORLD'S  CHILDHOOD 

or  feet  or  hands.  Man  is  able  to  concentrate 
his  thoughts,  and  this  habit  of  continuous 
attention  and  control  of  our  thinking  lies  at 
the  root  of  all  mental  and  moral  progress. 
How  does  the  young  apprentice  learn  his 
trade?  By  sowing  certain  thoughts  which 
grow  and  multiply  along  the  line  of  his  busi- 
ness. How  does  the  student  become  a  ripe 
scholar?  By  carefully  taking  care  of  the 
thoughts  which  he  allows  seeding-place  in 
the  soil  of  his  mind.  A  wholesome  man  who 
takes  his  will  seriously  is  as  able  to  regulate 
his  mind  as  the  engineer  is  to  regulate  his 
machinery.  It  is  reported  that  Wesley  and 
Wellington  and  Napoleon  could  go  to  sleep 
at  any  moment  of  the  day  or  night,  by  sheer 
force  of  mental  resolution.  And  are  we  not 
commanded  in  the  Bible  to  think  on  things 
lovely,  and  honest,  and  true,  and  just,  and 
pure?  Nothing  could  be  more  important 
than  that.  Be  careful  of  the  plants  you 
sow  in  your  mind,  for  it  is  nowhere  truer 
than  there  that  every  seed  shall  bring  forth 
after  his  kind. 

The  teachings  of  John  Ruskin  are  per- 
vaded all  the  way  through  by  the  poetry  of 
the  Psalms.     How  does  it  come?     As  soon 


THE  ROMANCE  OF  THE  FIELDS  US 

as  he  was  able  to  read  he  studied  the  Bible 
by  his  mother's  side  as  few  children  were 
ever  taught  to  study  its  pages.  Among  the 
passages  that  he  learned  by  heart  were  the 
twenty-third,  thirty-second,  ninetieth,  ninety- 
first,  one  hundred  and  third,  one  hundred 
and  twelfth,  one  hundred  and  nineteenth, 
and  one  hundred  and  thirty  ninth  Psalm.  Of 
the  one  hundred  and  nineteenth  Psalm  Rus- 
kin  once  said:  ^^It  is  strange  that  of  all 
the  pieces  of  the  Bible  which  my  mother 
taught  me,  that  which  cost  me  most  to  learn, 
and  which  was  to  my  childish  mind  chiefly 
repulsive.  Psalm  one  hundred  and  nine- 
teenth, has  now  become  of  all  the  most 
precious  to  me  in  its  overflowing  and 
glorious  passion  for  the  love  of  God.*'  So\v^ 
the  Bible  in  your  heart  and  it  will  bear  fruit 
after  its  kind. 

The  spiritual  world  has  this  same  law  of 
heredity.  The  writer  of  Proverbs  tells  us 
that  **A  soft  answer  turneth  away  wrath,'' 
and  love  generates  love  again  in  return. 

M^  Moody  used  to  tell  how  when  he 
built  his  first  tabernacle  in  Chicago  he 
was  so  anxious  that  every  one  who  came 
to  that  tabernacle,  whatever  else  he  might 


146  TEE  WOBLD'S  CHILDHOOD 

hear  or  learn,  should  hear  or  learn  about 
the  love  of  God,  and  so  fearful  was  he  that 
some  day  some  man  might  stand  up  in  the 
pulpit  and  forget  to  tell  the  people  that 
God  is  love,  that  he  had  the^e  letters  raised 
in  gas-jets  right  over  the  preacher's  head, 
so  whoever  preached  there,  and  whatever 
he  preached  about,  the  whole  audience  dur- 
ing the  entire  sermon  saw  that  blazing 
away  above  his  head,  *^God  is  love."  One 
night  after  the  church  was  lit  up,  and 
before  the  service  began,  and  before  any- 
body had  come,  a  poor  wretched  man  was 
passing  up  the  street,  and  came  up  to  the 
tabernacle.  He  saw  the  door  standing 
partly  ajar;  he  said  to  himself,  '* There  will 
be  warmth  and  comfort  inside,  anyhow. '* 
He  went  up  the  steps  and  pushed  the  door 
a  little  wider  open,  and  was  about  to  step 
in,  when  those  gas-jets  blazing  away  above 
the  pulpit  caught  his  attention,  ^^God  is 
love.''  He  pulled  the  door  to,  turned 
around  and  went  down  the  steps,  and  started 
up  the  street  grumbling  and  muttering  to 
himself.  He  said,  ^^That  is  not  true,  God 
is  not  love;  if  God  were  love,  He  would 
love  me,  and  God  certainly  does  not  love 


TRE  ROMANCE  OF  TEE  FIELDS  147 

such  a  miserable  outcast  as  I  am.''  But  the 
letters  of  fire  which  he  had  seen  kept  burn- 
ing into  his  heart,  *^God  is  love,''  **God 
is  love,"  '*God  is  love";  and  finally  he 
turned  around  and  retraced  his  steps  and 
came  back  to  the  tabernacle,  taking  a  place 
in  one  corner  of  the  audience-room.  After 
a  while  the  congregation  came  and  Mr.  Moody 
began  to  preach.  As  Mr.  Moody  preached, 
the  poor  fellow  began  to  weep.  Mr.  Moody 
caught  sight  of  the  man  in  tears,  and  as  soon 
as  the  sermon  was  over  he  walked  right 
out  of  the  pulpit,  and  went  and  sat  down 
by  the  side  of  the  man  who  was  weeping 
and  said  to  him,  *^My  friend,  what  was  it  in 
the  sermon  that  affected  you  so?"  **0h," 
he  said,  *4t  was  nothing  in  the  sermon, 
sir ;  I  have  not  heard  a  word  of  the  sermon ; 
I  do  not  know  what  you  preached  about." 
**Well,"  said  Mr.  Moody,  ^^why  are  you 
weeping?"  *'0h,"  he  replied,  *' those  words 
up  there  in  the  gas-jets,  *God  is  love.'  " 
Mr.  Moody  opened  his  Bible  and  from 
it  showed  the  despairing  man  the  won- 
derful love  of  God  to  sinners,  and  that 
man  forsook  his  sin,  and  taking  the  great 
truth  into  his  heart,  was  saved  that  night. 


14S  THB  WORLD'S  CHILDHOOD 

My  friends,  that  was  only  the  most  natural 
thing  in  the  world,  that  God^s  love  should 
awaken  the  love  of  that  poor  sinner  in 
return.  How  unnaturally  some  of  you  are 
living.  God  has  manifested  His  love  to 
you  in  a  hundred  ways,  and  yet  you  are 
giving  Him  no  love  and  no  thanksgiving  in 
your  daily  lives.  The  soil  must  respond  to 
the  seed,  but  a  man's  heart  may  refuse. 
God  has  made  you  so  like  Himself  that  you 
can  refuse  response  even  to  the  divine  love, 
but,  oh,  the  folly  of  it,  and  the  tragedy  of 
it!  Open  your  heart  to  the  love  of  God, 
and  let  it  be  the  good  soil  that  shall  give 
back  love  for  love  for  your  Savior  and 
your  Lord. 


THE  CLOCK  OF  TIME 

**And  God  said,  Let  there  be  lights  in  the  firma- 
ment of  the  heaven  to  divide  the  day  from  the  night; 
and  let  them  be  for  signs,  and  for  seasons,  and  for 
days,  and  years. ' ' — Gen.  1 :  14. 

OUB  text  is  the  record  of  the  birth  of 
time.  Behind  it  is  eternity,  before  is 
eternity;  but  here  time  is  born.  We  have 
recorded  the  building  of  the  first  clock  in 
the  universe — the  great  clock  of  time.  All 
other  clocks  have  been  modeled  after  it, 
and  all  other  clocks  depend  upon  it.  This 
is  the  one  perfect  clock  which  God  placed  in 
the  heavens  to  tell  the  hours,  the  days,  the 
weeks,  the  months,  the  seasons,  and  the 
years.  This  is  a  clock  which  no  one  ever 
winds  up,  but  which  has  been  going  on 
constantly  without  slipping  a  single  cog  or 
forgetting  a  stroke  since  its  creation,  and 
has  never  gone  wrong.  The  dial-plate  of 
this  clock  is  the  blue  skies  over  our  heads, 
and  what  a  dial-plate  it  is!  In  the  daytime 
it  is  brilliant  with  light,  and  at  night  it  is 

149 


150  TEE  WOELB'S  CHILDHOOD 

set  with  stars  like  diamonds.  Around  the 
edge  of  this  dial-plate  is  the  rim  of  the 
horizon,  and  it  has  the  sun  and  the  moon 
for  its  hands.  Both  are  forever  shining 
as  they  move,  and  both  keep  perfect  time 
and  are  never  early  or  late. 

Bishop  Wilberforce  well  said  that  there 
are  few  words  much  oftener  in  our  mouths 
than  that  short  but  most  important  word, 
time.  The  thought  of  it  seems  to  mingle 
itself  with  almost  everything  we  do.  It  is 
the  long  measure  of  our  labor,  expectation, 
and  pain;  it  is  the  scanty  measure  of  our 
rest  and  joy.  Its  shortness  or  its  length 
are  continually  given  as  our  reason  for 
doing,  or  leaving  undone,  the  various  works 
which  concern  us  from  time  to  time.  What 
present  time  is,  it  is  most  difficult  to  con- 
ceive, for  even  as  we  try  to  catch  it,  tho 
but  in  thought,  it  slips  by  us.  Subdivide 
our  measure  as  we  may,  we  never  actually 
reach  it.  It  was  future,  it  is  past;  it  is  the 
meeting-point  of  these  two,  and  itself,  it 
seems,  is  not.  And  so  the  question  arises 
whether  there  really  is  any  future  time; 
whether  it  can  exist,  except  in  our  idea, 
before  it  is.     Or  whether  there  can  be  any 


THE  CLOCK  OF  TIME  151 

past  time;  what  that  can  be  which  is  no 
more;  whose  track  of  light  has  vanished 
from  us  in  the  darkness;  which  is  as  a 
shadow  that  swept  by  us  and  is  gone.  All 
this  is  full  of  wonder,  and  it  may  become, 
in  many  ways,  most  useful  matter  for  re- 
flection to  those  who  can  bear  to  look  calmly 
into  the  depths  of  their  being.  It  may  lead 
us  to  remember  how  much  of  what  is 
round  us  here  is,  after  all,  seeming  and 
unreal,  and  so  force  us  from  our  too  ready 
commerce  with  visible  shadows  into  com- 
munion with  invisible  realities. 


Let  us  learn  from  this  wonderful  clock  of 
time,  First:  Man's  supreme  place  in  the 
universe.  Man  is  greater  than  his  clock, 
tho  it  may  have  the  power  to  crush  him  if 
he  puts  himself  in  the  way  of  its  machinery. 
This  wonderful  clock  of  time  was  made  to 
serve  man.  There  can  be  no  greater  evi- 
dence of  the  truthfulness  of  the  record 
concerning  the  story  of  creation,  in  which 
man  is  put  in  possession  of  the  world,  the 
whole  teaching  of  which  is  that  the  universe 


152  TEE  WORLD'S  CHILDHOOD 

was  made  to  serve  man,  than  the  adaptation 
of  this  great  clock  of  time  to  minister  to 
man's  needs.  A  story  has  often  been  told 
of  Napoleon,  that  on  one  occasion  when  he 
was  at  sea,  returning  home  from  Egpyt,  he 
overheard  his  officers,  as  they  paced  the 
deck  on  a  starlit  night,  arguing  as  to  the 
existence  of  God.  That  great  military  genius 
listened  for  a  moment,  and  then,  throwing 
his  hand  out  toward  the  sky,  said  ^^Gentle- 
men, who  made  all  thatf  So  this  clock 
of  time  is  not  only  the  evidence  of  the 
existence  of  God,  but  a  perpetual  evidence 
of  the  truthfulness  of  this  story  of  creation, 
which  places  man  in  the  center  of  the  stage 
as  the  child  of  God. 


II 

The  clock  of  time  enables  men  to  reckon 
their  time  and  mark  the  flight  of  their  lives. 
It  would  be  impossible  for  us  to  do  this  with- 
out it.  Professor  Gaussen  tells  the  story 
of  the  famous  Baron  de  Trenck,  that  when 
he  came  out  of  his  dark  dungeon  in  Magde- 
burg, where  he  could  not  distinguish  night 
from  day,  and  in  which  the  King  of  Prussia 


TEE  CLOCK  OF  TIME  153 

had  kept  him  imprisoned  for  ten  years,  he 
imagined  that  he  had  been  in  it  for  a 
much  shorter  period,  because  he  had  had 
no  means  of  marking  how  the  time  had 
passed,  and  he  had  seen  no  new  events  and 
had  even  had  few  thoughts.  His  astonish- 
ment was  extreme  when  he  was  told  how 
many  years  had  thus  passed  away  like  a 
painful  dream.  But  this  great  clock  of 
time  makes  it  impossible  for  us  to  forget 
or  be  indifferent  to  the  flight  of  our  years. 
It  makes  us  divide  them  up  and  count  them 
off  a  day  at  a  time.  A  few  minutes  before 
noon  every  day  by  the  Eastern  standard 
time,  every  Western  Union  Telegraph  Com- 
pany's instrument  cuts  its  connection  and 
is  put  in  communication  with  the  instrument 
in  the  Naval  Observatory  in  Washington. 
At  five  seconds  before  twelve  a  warning  tick 
sounds  over  the  wires.  When  the  skilled 
operator  in  the  observatory  sees  that  the 
sun  is  directly  over  the  imaginary  line  of 
longitude  passing  through  the  city,  that 
moment  the  fact  is  flashed  over  thousands  of 
miles  of  wire,  and  every  one  of  the  com- 
pany's clocks  made  true.  Then  business  is 
resumed.     The  work  of  the  day  is  planned 


154  TEE  WORLD'S  CHILDHOOD 

with  reference  to  this  appointment.  The 
company's  rule  is  to  be  absolutely  accurate; 
to  test  this  accuracy  every  day,  and  to 
test  it  by  the  standard  set  in  the  heavens, 
and  all  this  purely  for  commercial  purposes. 
And  all  the  great  cities  and  towns  and  little 
villages  and  farmhouses  throughout  the  land 
get  their  time  indirectly  if  not  directly  from 
the  sun,  the  great  shining  hand  on  the 
clock  of  time.  So  it  is  that  man's  thought 
is  called  constantly  to  the  heavens,  and  it  is 
daily  suggested  to  us  that  since  our  lives 
are  so  utterly  dependent  on  God,  we 
ought  to  cut  clean  our  connection  with 
every  outside  thing  at  least  once  in  every 
twenty-four  hours,  and  put  our  hearts 
as  well  as  our  watches  beating  in  time  and 
tune  with  the  great  heart  of  the  universe. 


Ill 

By  aid  of  this  great  clock  of  time  God 
is  ever  and  anon  calling  us  to  an  accounting, 
giving  us  a  premonition  of  the  judgment 
day  under  circumstances  which  impress  us 
and  are  likely  to  call  us  to  wisdom.  Every 
evening's  sunset  is  a  little  miniature  judg- 


TEE  CLOCK  OF  TIME  155 

ment.  The  day  is  done.  What  has  been  ac- 
complished by  it?  It  calls  men  to  thought 
and  to  consideration.  Every  morning's  sun- 
rise is  an  appeal  for  a  better  life.  No  matter 
how  I  may  have  failed  yesterday,  with  the 
dawn  of  the  morning  hope  springs  in  my 
heart  to  make  a  better  record  to-day.  Susan 
Coolidge  very  aptly  expresses  it  when  she 
sings : 

Every  day  is  a  fresh  beginning, 
Every  morn  is  the  world  made  new; 
You  who  are  weary  of  sorrow  and  sinning, 
Here  is  a  beautiful  hope  for  you — 
A  hope  for  me  and  a  hope  for  you. 

Not  only  the  days,  but  the  close  of  every 
week  again  calls  us  to  a  halt.  One  of  the 
great  blessings  of  Sunday  is  that  it  is 
a  mirror  in  which  we  see  ourselves  once 
a  week  and  are  called  to  account.  The 
months,  too,  are  marked  by  mile-stones  and 
are  forever  emphasizing  to  us  the  flight  of 
our  opportunities.  New  Year's  day  is  an 
annual  day  of  judgment  to  every  thoughtful 
man  or  woman.  Our  birthdays  are  solemn 
monitors,  telling  us  of  the  flight  of  time 
and  calling  us  to  remember  that  whatever 
we  are  going  to  do,  we  should  be  up  and 


150  TEE  WORLD'S  CHILDHOOD 

doing  ere  our  measure  of  time  has  flown 
away. 

This  constant  reckoning  which  is  forced 
upon  us  by  the  clock  of  time  compels  us  to 
take  account  of  the  relative  values  of  things, 
and  give  the  more  time  to  the  things  which 
are  more  important.  If  we  had  all  eternity, 
if  there  were  no  limit,  then  we  could  afford 
to  give  as  much  time  to  a  small  matter  as 
to  a  great  matter.  But  when  the  clock  tells 
us  that  the  time  is  passing,  and  that  there 
can  be  but  a  short  measure  left,  we  are 
given  wisdom  to  devote  ourselves  to  matters 
that  really  count  in  our  destiny.  I  have 
read  of  an  artist's  pupil  who  was  sketching 
a  landscape  bathed  in  the  glow  of  the  setting 
sun.  A  large  barn  stood  in  the  foreground. 
The  artist  watched  his  pupil  in  silence  for 
a  time,  and  then  said  to  him  impressively, 
**If  you  spend  so  much  time  painting  the 
shingles  on  that  barn,  you  will  never  have 
time  to  paint  that  sunset.''  In  all  our  work 
we  must  choose  between  shingles  and  sunsets. 
If  we  would  win  the  things  that  are  great 
and  glorious  and  splendid,  we  must  give 
scant  attention  to  the  things  that  are  of 
small  account. 


TUE  CLOCK  OF  TIMM  iSf 


IV 


This  great  solemn  clock  of  time,  which 
counts  our  lives  so  persistently  day  by  day, 
calls  us  to  serious  and  wise  views  of  life. 
President  Hadley,  of  Yale  University,  in  an 
address  to  college  students,  recently  said, 
**We  think  of  life  as  a  goblet  to  be  drained; 
is  it  not  rather  a  measure  to  be  filled?" 
A  wise  reviewer  of  that  statement  declares 
that  the  whole  difference  between  a  wasted 
life  and  a  successful  one  is  in  that  short 
sentence.  The  world  forever  needs,  forever 
values,  the  men  who  fill  life  with  value  for 
themselves  and  others.  **What  can  I  get  out 
of  itr'  is  the  worst,  and,  in  the  end,  the 
most  hopeless  motto  a  man  can  have.  Life, 
if  we  get  ourselves  to  drain  it,  is  a  pitifully 
shallow  cup.  It  holds  a  few  pleasures,  which 
are  often  bitter  in  the  after-taste,  a  little 
selfish  ambition,  but  no  more.  All  down  the 
line  of  history  pleasure-lovers,  who  have 
taken  life  to  be  a  goblet  to  be  drained,  have 
found  the  bitter  dregs  at  the  bottom  of  the 
cup. 


158  THE  WORLD'S  CHILDHOOD 

But  the  men  who  have  taken  life  to  be  a 
measure  to  be  filled  with  the  best  thinking 
and  the  best  doing  they  could  pour  into  it — 
they  are  the  pride  and  the  glory  of  history. 
The  biography  of  every  great  man  like 
Gladstone,  or  Lincoln,  or  Barnardo,  or 
Moody,  or  General  Booth,  teaches  us 
how  much  the  measure  of  life  may 
be  made  to  hold.  Study  lives  like  those 
and  it  is  not  a  shallow  cup.  Life  is 
shallow  only  when  we  are  seeking  to  exhausf 
it;  it  enlarges  as  we  seek  to  fill  it.  And 
the  end  of  such  a  life  is  honor  and  peace. 
When  that  heroic  man.  Bishop  Charles  C. 
McCabe,  drew  near  the  end,  he  wrote  a 
friend,  a  few  weeks  before  the  stroke  of 
paralysis  ended  his  toil  on  earth,  of  a  bad 
break  he  had  had  in  his  health.  He  closed 
the  letter  by  saying  that  the  recent  days  of 
weakness  and  sleepless  nights  had  brought 
to  his  mind  a  little  poem  found  under  the 
pillow  of  a  dead  soldier  in  Port  Eoyal  in 
1862: 

I  lay  me  down  to  sleep 

And  little  care 
Whether  my  waking  find  me 

Here  or  there. 


THE  CLOCK  OF  TIME  159 

I  am  not  eager — bold ; 

All  that  is  past. 
I'm  ready  not  to  do 

At  last — at  last. 

My  full  day's  work  is  done 

And  that  is  all  my  part, 
I  give  a  patient  God 

My  patient  heart — 

And  gi-asp  His  banner  still 

Tho  all  the  stars  be  dim — 
For  stripes  no  less  than  stars 

Lead  up  to  Him. 


THE  LAMPS  OF  THE  SKY 

^^God  made  the  two  great  lights;  the  greater  light 
to  rule  the  day,  and  the  lesser  light  to  rule  the  nights 
He  made  the  stars  also. ' ' — Gen.  1 :  16. 

WHAT  great  words  these  are  and  with 
what  great  themes  they  deal!  In- 
stinctively the  mind  and  heart  are  lifted  up 
and  exalted.  David  says,  **When  I  con- 
sider thy  heavens,  and  the  moon  and  the 
stars  which  thou  hast  ordained,*'  then  he  is 
led  off  into  great  thoughts  concerning  God 
and  man  and  his  eternal  destiny.  Job  says 
the  same  thing  in  his  own  grand  way, 
'^  Stand  still  and  consider  the  wondrous 
works  of  God.''  And  when  God  answered 
Job  out  of  the  whirlwind  He  silenced  him 
with  the  inquiry:  ^^ Where  is  the  way  to  the 
dwelling-place  of  light?  And  as  for  dark- 
ness, where  is  the  place  thereof,  that  thou 
shouldest  take  it  with  a  bound  thereof,  and 
that  thou  shouldest  discern  the  paths  to 
the  house  thereof?  *  *  *  *  Canst  thou 
bind  the  clusters  of  the  Pleiades  or  loose 

160 


TEE  LAMPS  OF  THE  SKY  l6l 

the  bands  of  Orion?  Canst  thou  lead  forth 
the  signs  of  the  Zodiac  in  their  season?  Or 
canst  thou  guide  the  Bear  with  her  train? 
Knowest  thou  the  ordinances  of  the  heavens  ? 
Canst  thou  establish  the  dominion  thereof 
in  the  earth? *' 

And  again  David  says,  **The  heavens 
declare  the  glory  of  God;  and  the  firmament 
showeth  his  handiwork/'  But  David  does 
not  undertake  to  teach  astronomy.  The 
Bible  does  not  profess  to  be  a  book  of 
science.  It  is  the  Book  of  God.  It  is  to 
reveal  to  men  the  presence  of  God  in  His 
world,  and  the  Bible  calls  attention  to  the 
heavens,  to  the  sun  and  the  moon  and  the 
stars,  as  the  witnesses  of  God's  power  and 
wisdom  as  well  as  the  revelation  of  His 
benevolence  and  love. 

To  the  reverent  soul  the  stars  in  their 
courses  and  the  moon  in  all  her  phases  are 
lessons  repeated  every  night  of  the  thought- 
ful care  of  God  toward  His  children.  That 
this  heavenly  witness  of  the  majesty  and 
love  of  God  is  silent,  only  puts  terrible 
emphasis  upon  its  testimony,  for  in  all  the 
great  things  silence  is  the  law  of  the  uni- 
verse.     The    heavens    are    also    universal 


162  TEE  WOBLB'S  CHILDHOOD 

teachers  from  pole  to  pole,  overshadowing 
all  nations  and  all  peoples,  the  heavens  bear 
their  testimony  and  speak  their  message. 
^'Two  things, 'v  said  Kant,  **fill  the  soul  with 
awe  and  wonder;  the  starry  heaven  above 
and  the  moral  law  within.''  As  the  moon 
and  the  stars  speak  to  ns  by  night  and  the 
sun  by  day,  calling  us  to  note  and  consider 
our  relation  with  the  highest  heaven,  so 
there  is  something  in  us  to  which  the  in- 
finite God  can  speak.  Pascal  said,  *^Man 
is  a  worm;  but  then,  he  is  a  worm  that 
thinks.'*  Men  may  look  to  be  very  low  and 
insignificant  to  us  sometimes,  but  the  scene 
changes  when  you  reflect  concerning  the 
humblest  man  that  he  has  relations  with 
the  infinite  God  who  ordained  the  heavens 
and  who  is  able  to  speak  to  this  man  in 
his  inner  soul  and  make  him  comprehend 
the  meaning  of  such  words  as  *^ Trust," 
*^Duty,"  ^^ Obedience,"  and  ^^Eeligion." 

I  am  sure  that  it  will  be  instructive  and 
helpful  to  us  to  briefly  consider  some  of 
the  messages  which  come  to  us  from  these 
lamps  in  the  sky. 


THE  LAMPS  OF  TEE  SKY  168 


Stanford  Holme,  after  a  visit  to  the 
Midnight  Sun,  declared  that  of  all  the 
forms  of  idolatry  none  is  less  unreasonable 
than  the  worship  of  the  sun.  For  if  ever 
man  might  seem  to  be  excusable  in  mis- 
taking the  creature  for  the  Creator;  if  ever 
the  eye  of  man  might  be  dazzled  and  blinded 
by  the  glory  of  any  created  thing,  so  as  not 
clearly  to  distinguish  it  from  the  glory  of 
the  Creator,  it  is  when  he  looks  upon  the 
sun  in  the  heavens.  And  of  all  the  seekers 
after  God  amid  the  gloom  of  heathenism, 
none  ever  come  nearer  finding  Him  without 
the  aid  of  revelation  than  one  of  the  old 
Norsemen,  a  supreme  judge  of  Iceland  in 
the  time  of  the  Republic;  a  man  of  un- 
blemished life  and  integrity,  who  vowed 
that  he  would  worship  no  other  god  but 
Him  who  had  created  the  sun,  and  who  was 
more  mighty  than  either  Thor  or  Odin. 
And,  when  dying,  he  desired  to  be  carried 
out  under  the  open  heaven  that  he  might 
pray  the  Father  of  Lights  to  deliver  his 
soul  in  the  darkness  of  death.  And  if  indeed 
*'The  invisible  things  of  God  may  be  under- 


164  TEE  WOBLD'S  CHILDHOOD 

stood  by  the  things  that  are  made'';  and 
if  **  every  one  that  asketh  receiveth  and  he 
that  seeketh  findeth,  and  to  him  that 
knocketh  it  shall  be  opened,''  who  shall  dare 
say  that  the  prayer  of  this  old  Norseman 
was  not  heard  and  answered. 

Many  years  ago  a  tactful  minister  of  the 
Gospel  named  Livingstone  and  Louis  Bona- 
parte, ex-King  of  Holland,  happened  to  be 
fellow  passengers  on  board  a  Hudson  Eiver 
steamer.  As  the  minister  was  walking  the 
deck  in  the  morning,  and  gazing  at  the  re- 
fulgence of  the  rising  sun,  which  appeared 
to  him  unusually  attractive,  he  passed  near 
the  distinguished  stranger,  and,  stopping  for 
a  moment,  accosted  him  thus:  ^^How  glori- 
ous, sir,  is  that  object,"  pointing  gracefully 
with  his  hand  to  the  sun.  The  ex-king  as- 
senting, he  immediately  added,  ^^And  how 
much  more  glorious,  sir,  must  be  its  Maker, 
the  Sun  of  Righteousness."  A  gentleman 
who  overheard  this  brief  conversation,  be- 
ing acquainted  with  both  men,  now  intro- 
duced them  to  each  other,  and  a  few  more 
remarks  were  interchanged.  Shortly  after, 
the  minister  again  turned  to  the  king,  and, 
with   an   air   of   kindly   fellowship,    invited 


TEE  LAMPS  OF  THE  SKY  165 

him  first,  and  then  the  rest  of  the  company, 
to  attend  a  morning  prayer.  After  the 
conversation  that  had  passed,  it  seemed 
the  most  natural  thing  in  the  world  to  accept 
the  invitation. 

There  is  no  more  beautiful  nor  compre- 
hensive illustration  or  type  of  Jesus  Christ 
than  when  He  is  compared  to  the  sun.  The 
prophet  Malachi,  looking  into  the  future, 
beheld  the  coming  of  Jesus  and  cried:  ^^But 
unto  you  that  fear  my  name  shall  the  Sun 
of  Eighteousness  arise  with  healing  in  his 
wings. ' ' 

Dr.  McCosh,  a  famous  college  professor 
and  moral  philosopher  of  his  day,  tells  how 
he  once  climbed  the  Gorner  Grat,  in  the 
Alps,  to  see  the  sun  rise.  It  is  one  of  the 
great  sights  of  the  world.  Every  mountain 
catches  tiie  light  according  to  the  height 
which  the  upheaving  forces  that  God  set 
in  motion  have  given  it.  First,  the  point  of 
Monte  Rosa  is  kissed  by  the  morning  beams, 
blushes  for  a  moment,  and  forthwith  stands 
clear  in  the  light.  Then  the  Bretthorn,  and 
the  dome  of  Mischabel,  and  the  Matterhorn, 
and  twenty  other  grand  mountains,  embrac- 
ing the  distant  Jung  Frau,  receive  each  in 


166  THE  WORLD'S  CHILDHOOD 

its  turn  the  gladdening  rays,  bask  each  for 
a  brief  space,  and  then  remain  bathed  in 
sunlight.  Meanwhile  the  valleys  between 
lie  down  dark  and  dismal  as  death.  But  the 
light  which  has  risen  is  the  light  of  the 
morning;  and  the  shadows  constantly  lessen, 
and  it  is  not  long  before  they  all  vanish. 
Such  is  the  hopeful  view  which  believers 
in  Jesus  Christ  may  take  of  the  world. 
Already  wide  reaches  are  illuminated  by 
the  light  from  Jesus  Christ.  Great  Britain 
and  her  spreading  colonies;  Prussia  extend- 
ing her  influence;  the  Stars  and  Stripes  of 
the  United  States  traversing  the  wide  ocean 
to  spread  the  banner  of  freedom  of  conscience 
over  the  Philippines  and  other  islands  of  the 
sea;  the  establishing  of  great  Christian 
churches  in  Japan;  the  marvelous  increase 
in  conversions  in  China  and  in  India;  the 
awakening  of  interest  and  pouring  of  light 
and  hope  into  darkest  Africa,  strengthen 
our  faith  and  quicken  our  hope  that  the 
time  is  rapidly  coming  when  the  whole  world, 
with  all  its  peoples  and  tribes,  shall  behold 
the  beauty  and  the  glory  of  God  in  the 
face  of  Jesus  Christ. 


THE  LAMPS  OF  THE  SKY  167 

n 

The  moon  has  often  been  used  as  a  type  of 
the  Christian  Church.  It  is  a  striking  il- 
lustration because  of  the  fact  that  while  the 
moon  gives  the  same  quality  of  light,  tho  of 
a  lesser  quantity,  it  shines  by  reflected  light. 
It  has  no  light  in  itself.  It  must  get  all  its 
light  from  the  sun.  So  the  Church  of  Jesus 
Christ  on  the  earth,  under  whatever  local 
or  denominational  name  it  may  be  called, 
must  get  all  its  heavenly  light  from  the  Sun 
of  Righteousness.  No  other  light  can  take 
the  place  of  that.  We  do  not  depreciate 
intellectual  light,  the  beauty  of  learning  and 
scholarship.  We  do  not  underrate  the 
beauty  and  power  of  art  or  music  or  litera- 
ture ;  but  there  is  not  enough  light  in  all  of 
these  combined,  apart  from  Jesus  Christ, 
to  pilot  a  single  soul  out  of  the  darkness  of 
sin  to  God  and  forgiveness.  Whenever  the 
Church  strays  from  Christ  it  loses  its  power 
to  give  true  enlightenment  to  sinful  men. 
And  there  is  the  true  glory  of  the  Church, 
to  be  able  to  light  men  to  God.  The  supreme 
mission  of  the  Church  is  to  light  the  path  of 
the   sinner   to    the   cross    of   Jesus    Christ, 


168  THE  WOBLD'S  CHILDHOOD 

where  the  light  of  forgiveness  and  salvation 
may  be  found.  When  the  Church  loses  that 
light,  she  becomes  a  poor  and  pitiful  thing; 
she  can  no  longer  prove  her  right  to  exist. 
And  we  are  worthy  members  of  the  Church 
of  Christ  only  when  as  individuals  we  have 
so  surrendered  our  hearts  to  the  radiant 
beams  that  fall  from  Christ  that  we  are  able 
to  add  something  to  the  aggregate  light  of 
Christ's  Church  and  illuminate  the  dark 
places  about  us. 

But  there  are  some  of  you  who  are  not 
a  part  of  the  Christian  Church,  yet  who, 
nevertheless,  owe  it  a  debt  which  you  are 
very  likely  to  overlook.  Dr.  Gunsaulus,  the 
Chicago  preacher,  tells  an  interesting  story 
of  Philip  D.  Armour  and  Dr.  Henry  M. 
Field.  Mr.  Armour  had  long  admired  The 
New  York  Evangelist,  and  was  distrest 
when  he  heard  that  the  decline  of  the 
journal  threatened  to  leave  Dr.  Field,  its 
editor  and  owner,  in  penury  in  his  old  age. 
The  packer  asked  Dr.  Gunsaulus  to  invite 
the  editor  to  Chicago,  and  then  he  himself  in- 
vited them  both  to  dinner  in  his  home.  At 
the  table  Mr.  Armour  turned  the  conversa- 
tion   almost    immediately    to    the    editor's 


TEE  LAMPS  OF  THE  SKY  169 

brother,  Mr.  Cyrus  W.  Field,  inventor  of 
the  ocean  telegraph.  Said  Mr.  Armour: 
*^I  am  sorry  that  in  your  brother's  life- 
time I  did  not  recognize  more  clearly  my 
debt  to  him.  Now  every  day  I  sit  in  my 
office  and  communicate  with  my  agents  all 
over  the  world,  and  my  business  multiplies 
wonderfully  just  because  I  can  keep  in 
touch  with  markets  for  my  products  in 
every  country.  And  I  owe  it  all  to  your 
brother;  if  it  hadn't  been  for  his  faith  in 
the  ocean  cables  I  never  could  have  built 
up  such  a  trade.  I  keep  wishing  I  had 
done  something  while  he  was  living  to  show 
him  that  I  appreciated  his  achievement.'' 
The  packing  king  kept  the  same  strain  of 
conversation  through  most  of  the  meal. 
Toward  the  last  a  plate  set  down  before  the 
editor  contained  among  the  viands  of  the 
course  a  small  slip  of  folded  paper.  Dr. 
Field  opened  it  doubtfully  and  found  written 
within:  **Good  for  ten  thousand  dollars  at 
the  office  of  the  Armour  Packing  Company 
to  the  brother  of  Cyrus  W.  Field."  The 
venerable  editor  was  overwhelmed  with 
confusion  and  was  scarcely  able  to  express 
his  feeling.    But,  of  course,  as  his  host  had 


170  TEE  WORLD'S  CHILDHOOD 

calculated,  he  could  not  decline  a  gift  given 
in  his  brother's  memory,  and  the  order 
was  cashed  next  morning. 

I  have  recalled  the  incident  because  there 
seems  to  me  to  be  in  this  sense  of  indebted- 
ness which  Mr.  Armour  felt  toward  the 
great  inventor  of  the  ocean  telegraph  a 
realization  of  obligation  which  ought  to  be 
more  keenly  felt  by  every  man  and  woman 
here  who  is  living  a  moral  and  to  a  degree 
an  upright  life  without  any  acknowledged 
help  to  Christianity.  You  owe  to  the  Church 
of  Christ  a  debt  which  you  have  never 
recognized.  Indeed,  you  may  sometimes  say, 
as  have  others,  that  it  is  only  the  weak  man 
who  is  unable  to  live  an  upright  and  true 
life  without  the  aid  of  Jesus  Christ.  Ah !  my 
friend,  with  what  a  poor  grace  come  such 
words  or  such  thoughts  from  you,  who  all 
your  lifetime  have  lived  within  range  of 
the  light  that  falls  from  the  windows  of 
the  Christian  Church ;  who  from  the  time  you 
were  little  children  until  now  have  been, 
whether  consciously  or  not,  held  back  from 
evil  ways  and  inspired  to  good  deeds  through 
the  light  that  has  fallen  upon  your  path  and 
upon   your   heart   from   Christian   sources. 


TEE  LAMPS  OF  THE  SKY  171 

Do  not,  I  beg  of  you,  live  longer  this  life  of 
ingratitude.  It  is  unworthy  of  you.  Pay  the 
debt  you  owe  to  Jesus  Christ.  Surrender 
your  whole  life  and  heart  to  Him  and  allow 
Him  to  illuminate  all  your  soul  with  His 
glorious  presence. 

in 

The  stars  are  used  in  the  Scriptures  as  an 
illustration  of  the  light  of  individual  char- 
acters and  careers.  Paul,  in  his  wonderful 
and  oft-quoted  discussion  of  the  resurrection 
of  the  dead,  says:  ^* There  is  one  glory  of 
the  sun,  and  another  glory  of  the  moon,  and 
another  glory  of  the  stars;  for  one  star 
differeth  from  another  star  in  glory. '  *  There 
are  two  thoughts  here  that  we  ought  to 
impress  upon  our  minds  and  upon  our  hearts 
as  well.  First,  we  have  our  individuality. 
All  stars  are  not  alike.  And  each  star  must 
get  its  light  from  Christ.  We  should  not 
find  fault  with  one  another  because  we  do  not 
shine  in  exactly  the  same  degree.  Not  only 
so,  but  no  one  can  take  our  place.  In  some 
mysterious  and  tremendous  sense  it  must  be 
true  that  if  we  do  not  do  our  work,  it  never 


172  TME  WORLD'S  CHILDHOOD 

can  be  done.  There  must  be  some  place  un- 
lighted  unless  we  give  ourselves  to  the  best 
of  our  ability  to  shine  for  Christ. 

The  other  thought  is  this,  that  the  possi- 
bility of  being  a  light-bearer  to  the  world 
belongs  by  inheritance  to  every  one  of  us. 
That  means  that  it  is  possible  for  each  of 
us  in  a  peculiar  and  sensible  degree  to  make 
the  world  a  brighter,  a  happier,  a  more 
glorious  place  in  which  to  live.  We  have 
natures  with  so  much  of  heaven  in  them 
that  notwithstanding  all  our  meanness  and 
our  sin,  if  we  will  humbly  submit  them  to 
God,  the  light  that  was  in  Jesus  Christ  can 
seize  hold  upon  that  wick  of  the  heavenly 
nature  in  us,  and  light  it,  and  feed  it,  so  that 
it  will  shine  forth  like  a  star  in  the  com- 
munity where  we  live.  And  how  many  times 
I  have  seen  a  man  whose  whole  nature  seemed 
dark  as  midnight  because  of  his  drunken- 
ness or  his  vulgarity  or  his  dishonesty  or 
his  heartless  selfishness,  come  under  the 
power  of  the  gospel  of  Christ,  and  be  so 
wrought  upon  by  the  Holy  Spirit  that  in 
humility  and  repentance  he  surrendered  him- 
self at  the  mercy  seat  before  God,  and  He 
found  somewhere  in  the  dark  chambers  of 


THE  LAMPS  OF  THE  SKY  173 

the  soul  a  wick  which  He  could  light,  and 
lo!  there  flamed  forth  a  lamp  of  heaven  full 
of  beauty  and  love  and  showing  the  graces  of 
the  spirit  of  Christ.  My  friend,  it  is  the 
glory  of  this  gospel  I  bring  to  you  that  I 
may  assure  you  that  there  is  not  one  of  you 
who  has  not  within  you  the  capacity  to  be 
lighted  from  heaven,  so  that  you  may  shine 
as  a  star  in  the  firmament  of  Christ's  king- 
dom. 


BEAUTY  AND  BEAST 

^'God  said,  Let  the  waters  swarm  with  swarms  of 
living  creatures,  and  let  birds  fly, ' '  etc. — Gen.  1 :  20-25. 

WHAT  a  silent  world  it  was  at  the 
opening  of  the  fifth  creative  epoch! 
It  was  a  completed  world,  but  without  in- 
habitants. The  house  was  finished,  even  to 
its  decoration,  but  there  were  no  tenants. 
It  was  an  empty  world,  waiting  to  be 
peopled.  There  were  seas,  bays,  lakes, 
rivers,  and  brooks;  but  there  were  no  fish, 
nor  turtles,  nor  any  living  thing  to  cast 
up  even  a  shell  along  the  seashore.  The 
mountains  lifted  their  sublime  forms  into 
the  sky  and  the  great  canons  were  growing 
dark  with  trees,  and  the  river-bottoms  beau- 
tiful with  verdure,  and  the  wide-stretching 
plains  green  with  their  new  carpets  of 
grass.  Flowering  trees  and  shrubs  shed 
their  fragrance  over  the  forests,  and  multi- 
tudes of  blossoms  made  beautiful  the 
meadow-lands  in  the  lower  vales;  but  there 
was  no  eye  or  personality  save  God  and  the 

174 


BEAUTY  AND  BEAST  175 

angels  to  rejoice  in  it.  There  was  not  even 
a  bee  to  gather  honey  from  the  flowers. 
There  were  no  squirrels  to  play  about  the 
roots  of  the  trees,  and  no  birds  to  make 
nests  in  or  sing  among  their  branches.  There 
were  no  cattle  on  the  plains,  no  wild  beasts 
in  the  jungle  or  the  forest.  It  was  a  silent, 
sleeping  world. 

And  now  God  would  fit  it  up  for  man,  and 
so  He  speaks  and  calls  into  being  creatures 
that  are  to  give  happiness  to  these  new 
children  for  whom  He  is  making  such 
splendid  preparation.  **And  God  said.  Let 
the  waters  swarm  with  swarms  of  living 
creatures,  and  let  birds  fly  above  the  earth 
in  the  open  firmament  of  heaven.  And  God 
created  the  great  sea-monsters,  and  every 
living  creature  that  moveth,  wherewith  the 
waters  swarm,  after  their  kind,  and  every 
winged  bird  after  its  kind:  and  God  saw 
that  it  was  good.  And  God  blessed  them, 
saying.  Be  fruitful,  and  multiply,  and  fill 
the  waters  in  the  seas,  and  let  birds  multiply 
on  the  earth.  And  there  was  evening  and 
there  was  morning,  a  fifth  day.  And  God 
said.  Let  the  earth  bring  forth  living 
creatures  after  their  kind,  cattle  and  creep- 


176  TEE  WOBLD'S  CHILDHOOD 

ing  things,  and  beasts  of  the  earth  after 
their  kind:  and  it  was  so.  And  God  made 
the  beasts  of  the  earth  after  their  kind,  and 
the  cattle  after  their  kind,  and  everything 
that  creepeth  upon  the  ground  after  its  kind : 
and  God  saw  that  it  was  good/' 


The  mystery  of  life  faces  us  in  this  theme. 
For  the  first  time  in  our  study  of  the  child- 
hood of  the  world  we  are  face  to  face  with 
living  creatures.  Scripture  agrees  with 
science  in  representing  life  as  having  a 
physical  basis.  A  generation  or  two  ago 
scientific  men,  however,  were  commonly  ex- 
pecting to  soon  discover  the  source  of  life  in 
material  things.  No  great  scientist  expects 
it  any  longer.  Huxley  said,  *'The  chasm 
between  the  not  living  and  the  living  the 
present  state  of  knowledge  can  not  bridge.  *' 
And  Haeckel  says,  *^Most  naturalists  of  our 
time  have  given  up  the  attempt  to  account 
for  the  origin  of  life  by  natural  causes.'' 
And  so  modern  learning  has  been  driven 
back  to  God  and  His  creative  fiat.  Milton,  in 
his  immortal  *^ Paradise  Lost,"  pictures  with 


BEAUTY  AND  BEAST  177 

stately  but  graphic  portraiture  the  wonderful 
scenes  depicted  in  our  text.  Speaking  of  the 
creation  of  the  living  things  in  the  waters 

he  says: 

Forthwith   the  sounds  and  seas,  each  creek  and  bay, 

With  fry  innumerable  swarm,  and  shoals 

Of  fish  that,  with  their  fins,  and  shining  scales, 

Glide  under  the  green  wave,  in  sculls  that  oft 

Bank  the  mid-sea;  part  single,  or  with  mate, 

Graze  the  seaweed,  their  pasture,  and  through  groves 

Of  coral  stray;  or,  sporting  with  quick  glance. 

Show  to  the  sun  their  waved  coats,  dropt  with  gold, 

Or,  in  their  pearly  shells  at  ease,  attend 

Moist  nutriment;  or  under  rocks  their  food, 

In  jointed  armor  watch :  on  smooth  the  seal 

And  bended  dolphins  play;  part  huge  of  bulk, 

Wallowuig  unwieldy,  enormous  in  their  gait, 

Tempest  the  ocean:  there  leviathan, 

Hugest  of  living  creatures,  on  the  deep 

Stretch 'd  like  a  promontory,  sleeps  or  swims, 

And  seems  a  moving  land;  and  at  his  gills 

Draws  in,  and  at  his  trunk  spouts  out,  a  sea. 

And  turning  his  eyes  upon  the  living 
creatures  of  the  upper  air,  he  beholds — 

There  the  eagle  and  the  stork 

On  cliffs  and  cedar  tops  their  eyries  build. 

And  as  his  eye  wanders  over  the  primeval 


178  THE  WORLD'S  CHILDHOOD 

woods  both  eye  and  ear  awake  to  the  vital 
transformation. 

From  branch  to  branch  the  smaller  birds  with  song 

Solaced  the  woods,  and  spread  their  painted  wings 

Till   even;   nor  then   the   solemn   nightingale 

Ceased  warbling,  but   all  night   tuned  her  soft  lays; 

Others,  on  silver  lakes  and  rivers,  bathed 

Their  downy  breast;  the  swan,  with  arched  neck, 

Between  her  white  wings  mantling  proudly,  rows 

Her  state  with  oary  feet;  yet  oft  they  quit 

The  dank,  and,  rising  on  stiff  pennons,  tower 

The  mid  aerial  sky:  others  on  ground 

Walk'd  firm;  the  crested  cock,  whose  clarion  sounds 

The  silent  hours;  and  th'  other,  whose  gay  train 

Adorns  him,  colored  with  the  florid  hue 

Of  rainbows  and  starry  eyes.     The  waters  thus 

With  fish  replenished,  and  the  air  with  fowl. 

Evening  and  morn  solemnized  the  fifth  day. 

And  now  the  poet  turns  in  his  splendid 
vision  to  the  creation  of  the  living  creatures 
whose  home  is  to  be  upon  the  earth  itself, 
and  in  wonder  he  sees: 

Out  of  the  ground  uprose, 
As  from  his  lair,  the  wild  beast,  where  he  wons 
In  forest  wild,  in  thicket,  brake,  or  den; 
Among  the  trees  in  pairs  they  rose,  they  walked; 
The  cattle  in  the  fields  and  meadows  green: 
Those  rare  and  solitary,  these  in  flocks 


BEAUTY  AND  BEAST  179 

Pasturing  at  once,  and  in  broad  herds  upsprung. 

The  grassy  clods  now  calved ;  now  half  appear  'd 

The  tawny  lion,  pawing  to  get  free 

His  hinder  parts,  then  springs,  as  broke  from  bonds, 

And  rampant  shakes  his  brindled  mane;  the  ounce, 

The  libbard,  and  the  tiger,  as  the  mole 

Rising,  the  crumbled  earth  above  them  threw 

In  hillocks :  the  swift  stag  from  underground 

Bore  up  his  branching  head ;  scarce  from  his  mold 

Behemoth,  biggest  born  of  earth,  upheaved 

His  vastness;  fleeced  the  flocks,  and  bleating   rose 

As  plants:  ambiguous  between  sea  and  land, 

The  river-horse,  and  scaly  crocodile. 

At  once  came  forth  whatever  creeps  the  ground. 

Insect   or  worm:   those   waved  their  limber  fans 

For  wings,  and  smallest  lineament  exact 

In  all  the  liveries  deck'd  of  summer's  pride. 

With  spots  of  gold  and  purple,  azure  and  green. 

swarming,  next  appeared 
The  female  bee,  that  feeds  her  husband  drone 
Deliciously,  and  builds  her  waxen  cells 
With  honey  stored:  the  rest  are  numberless, 
And  thou  their  natures  know  'st,  and  gavest  them  names. 

n 

This  wonderful  world  God  fitted  for  man, 
and  surely  in  all  this  furnishing  of  living 
things  on  earth,  in  the  waters,  and  in  the 
air,  there  are  many  lessons  which  speak,  not 


180  TEE  WORLD'S  CHILDHOOD 

only  to  our  curious  minds,  but  which  have 
a  message  from  our  Heavenly  Father  to  our 
souls  as  well.  Professor  Gaussen,  the 
Christian  Scientist  of  Geneva,  says  that  as 
in  the  beauteous  creations  of  the  vegetable 
world,  and  the  creatures  of  the  deep,  so  also 
among  the  birds  of  the  air,  we  have  con- 
stant testimony  of  the  immanence  of  God. 
Watch  the  smallest  bird  and  you  will  find 
the  guiding  finger  of  its  Creator.  Before 
they  have  had  any  experience  you  will  see 
the  little  birds  undertake  and  accomplish  all 
the  peculiar  duties  of  their  being;  and 
accomplish  them,  too,  with  a  certainty  and 
perfection  which  no  instruction  could  teach 
and  no  experience  improve.  The  tiny  spar- 
row goes  through  with  the  whole  process  of 
building,  laying,  hatching,  and  rearing  as 
successfully  the  first  time  as  the  last.  Who 
taught  this  little  bird  of  the  air,  if  it  were 
not  God?  Who  leads  the  young  female  bird 
to  prepare  a  nest,  untaught  and  undirected, 
long  before  she  has  need  of  it?  Who  in- 
structs each  particular  species  in  its  own 
peculiar  style  of  architecture?  And  when 
the  first  egg  is  brought  forth,  who  teaches 
her  what  she  must  do  with  it?     Or  that  it 


BEAUTY  AND  BEAST  181 

is  a  thing  to  be  taken  care  of,  that  it 
must  be  laid  and  preserved  in  the  nest;  and 
the  germ  of  future  life  being  wrapt  in  the 
egg,  who  teaches  its  little  owner  that  heat 
will  develop  and  mature  that  germ!  Who 
acquaints  her  with  the  fact  that  her  own 
body  possesses  the  precise  kind  and  degree 
of  warmth  required?  And  what  is  it  that 
holds  her  so  constantly  and  so  long  upon  the 
nest,  amid  light  and  darkness,  storm  and 
sunshine,  without  the  least  knowledge  or 
idea  as  to  what  the  result  or  fruit  of  all 
this  toil  and  self-denial  is  to  mean?  Do 
you  say,  *^Instincf  ?  What  is  instinct  to 
the  bird  or  the  beast  but  the  teaching  of 
Almighty  God  to  His  creatures? 

The  migration  of  the  birds  is  also  a  most 
wonderful  thing.  The  Scripture  says,  **The 
stork  in  the  heavens  knoweth  her  appointed 
times;  and  the  turtle  and  the  crane  and  the 
swallow  observe  the  time  of  their  coming. '^ 
So  fixt  are  the  dates  of  departing  and 
returning  with  many  tribes  of  birds  that  in 
certain  Eastern  countries  at  the  present  day, 
almanacs  are  timed  and  bargains  struck  upon 
the  data  they  supply.  Now,  who  informs 
them   that   the   day   is   come   for   them   to 


182  TEE  WORLD'S  CHILDHOOD 

take  their  leave!  Or  announces  to  them  that 
the  time  is  arrived  for  their  return?  With- 
out science,  without  a  map,  without  a  com- 
pass, without  a  way-mark,  who  acquaints 
them  with  the  direction  they  are  to  take? 
Or  measures  out  for  them  the  length  of  the 
journey  they  have  to  perform!  Who  enables 
them  to  pursue  without  confusion  their 
course  over  pathless  oceans,  and  through 
the  trackless  voids  of  the  atmosphere,  alike 
in  the  daytime  and  in  the  night  season,  and 
to  arrive  exactly  at  the  same  spot  from 
year  to  year?  To  whom  shall  we  ascribe 
this  extraordinary  power — to  God,  or  to  the 
little  bird?  It  must  be  either  to  one  or  to 
the  other.  It  is  obvious  that  the  little  bird 
does  not  possess  either  the  reasoning  powers 
or  the  geographical  acquaintance  or  the 
meteorological  knowledge  which  would  en- 
able it  to  either  plan  or  carry  out  such 
astonishing  enterprises.  Indeed,  if  man 
could  thus  steer  his  voyages  over  the  ocean, 
he  could  throw  away  the  compass  and  the 
sextant  and  dispense  with  his  trigonometry 
and  logarithms.  Whatever  name  we  may 
give  this  mysterious  power,  we  are  brought 
back  to  the  conviction  of  Sir  Isaac  Newton, 


BEAUTY  AND  BEAST  183 

that  all  this  is  done  through  the  immediate 
influence  and  guidance  of  Him  in  whom  all 
^4ive  and  move  and  have  their  being/'  and 
without  whom  '*not  a  sparrow  falleth  to 
the  ground."  And  in  all  this  there  can  not 
help  being  afforded  a  sublime  comfort  to 
our  own  hearts.  It  is  impossible  for  us  to 
believe  that  the  God  who  has  furnished 
water  for  the  web-foot  and  sunshine  and 
buoyant  air  for  the  wings  of  birds  has 
forgotten  man  and  will  fail  to  furnish  satis- 
faction for  those  higher  and  nobler  longings 
which  inspire  our  souls.  It  is  impossible  to 
believe  that  the  God  who  guides  the  little 
bird  across  the  trackless  ocean  has  not  con- 
stant thought  and  care  about  the  children  to 
whom  He  has  revealed  His  very  soul.  With 
WiUiam  Cullen  Bryant  we  must  agree  that 

He  who,  from  zone  to  zone, 

Guides  through  the  boundless  sky  thy  certain  flight, 
In  the  long  way  that  I  must  tread  alone 

Will  lead  my  steps  aright. 

Jesus  Christ  often  used  the  most  com- 
mon beasts  and  birds  as  illustrations  of  the 
divine   care    and    sympathy.     To    illustrate 


184  TEE  WOBLD'S  CHILDHOOD 

His  own  power  and  willingness  to  share 
with  us  and  help  us  in  all  the  burdens  of 
life,  He  called  the  attention  of  tired  and 
weary  people  to  the  oxen  yoked  together 
that  they  might  the  more  readily  draw  their 
loads  and  said:  *^Come  unto  me,  all  ye  that 
labor  and  are  heavy  laden,  and  I  will  give 
you  rest.  Take  my  yoke  upon  you  and 
learn  of  me;  for  I  am  meek  and  lowly  in 
heart ;  and  ye  shall  find  rest  unto  your  souls. 
For  my  yoke  is  easy  and  my  burden  is 
light. '^ 

And  John  the  Baptist,  turning  the  atten- 
tion of  his  own  friends  and  disciples  to 
Jesus  as  the  true  Savior,  said  to  them, 
**  Behold  the  Lamb  of  God,  that  taketh  away 
the  sin  of  the  world.'*  William  Blake,  in 
a  little  poem  full  not  only  of  sweetest  sim- 
plicity but  of  deep  spiritual  suggestion, 
sings  to  the  lamb; 


Little  Lamb,  who  made  thee  ? 
Dost  thou  know  who  made  thee  ? 
Gave  thee  life,  and  bid  thee  feed 
By  the  stream  and  o'er  the  mead; 
Gave  thee  clothing  of  delight, 
Softest  clothing,  woolly,  bright; 


BEAUTY  AND  BEAST  185 

Gave  thee  such  a  tender  voice, 
Making  all  the  vales  rejoice? 

Little  Lamb,  who  made  thee  ? 

Dost  thou  know  who  made  thee? 

Little  Lamb,  I'll  tell  thee. 
Little  Lamb,  I'll  tell  thee; 
He  is  called  by  thy  name. 
For  He  calls  Himself  a  Lamb. 
He  is  meek,  and  He  is  mild; 
He  became  a  little  child. 
I  a  child,  and  thou  a  lamb. 
We  are  called  by  His  name. 

Little  Lamb,  God  bless  thee! 

Little  Lamb,  God  bless  thee ! 

And  so,  my  dear  friends,  begin  where  we 
will,  and  wander  where  we  may,  in  all  God's 
universe,  we  get  back  to  Jesus  Christ  as 
the  one  comfort  of  our  hearts  and  the  one 
hope  of  the  salvation  of  our  souls.  With  all 
my  heart's  earnestness  I  point  you  to  Jesus, 
**The  Lamb  of  God  that  taketh  away  the 
sin  of  the  world.''  He  bore  your  sins,  and 
if  you  will  open  your  heart  to  Him,  His 
atoning  sacrifice  will  be  accepted  for  you, 
and  your  sins  shall  be  blotted  out. 


MAN  CREATED  IN  GOD'S  IMAGE 

*'And  God  said,  Let  us  make  man  in  our  image,  after 
our  likeness;  and  let  them  have  dominion/* — Genesis 
1:26. 

A  ITER  describing  the  transformation  of 
chaos  into  continent  and  sea  and  sky; 
into  a  world  of  fertility  and  beauty,  peopled 
with  living  creatures,  John  Milton  sings  of 
the  vacant  position  still  waiting  on  the 
earth.    He  says: 

There  wanted  yet  the  master-work,  the  end 
Of  all  yet  done ;  a  creature,  who,  not  prone 
And  brute,  as  other  creatures,  but  endued 
With  sanctity  of  reason,  might  erect 
His  stature,  and  upright,  with  front  serene. 
Govern  the  rest,  self -knowing ;  and  from  thence 
Magnanimous,  to  correspond  with  heaven; 
But  grateful  to  acknowledge  whence  his  good 
Descends ;  thither,  with  heart,  and  voice,  and  eyes, 
Directed  in  devotion,  to  adore 
And  worship  God  Supreme,  who  made  him  chief 
Of  all  His  works:  therefore  the  Omnipotent 
Eternal  Father  (for  where  is  not  He 
Present?)  thus  to  His  Son  audibly  spake: 
*'Let  us  make  now  man  in  our  image,  man 
186 


MAN  CREATED  IN  GOD'S  IMAGE  187 

In  our  similitude,  and  let  them  rule 

Over  the  fish  and  fowl  of  sea  and  air, 

Beast  of  the  field,  and  over  all  the  earth, 

And  every  creeping  thing  that  creeps  the  ground.  ^  * 

It  must  be  accepted  by  the  most  critical 
caviler  concerning  man's  childhood  to  the 
divine,  that  he  has  in  one  sense  at  least 
lived  up  to  the  purpose  for  which  the  Bible 
says  he  was  made  and  is  entering  upon 
dominion  over  the  forces  of  nature.  As  Dr. 
Boardman  has  said,  all  history  is  the  story 
of  man's  entering  upon  this  great  commis- 
sion for  which  he  was  created.  Civilization 
is  the  unfolding  of  the  privileges  of  the 
charter  which  God  put  in  man's  hands  at 
the  beginning.  And  wherever  civilized  man 
has  gone,  there  he  has  gained  or  is  gaining 
dominion  over  the  fish  of  the  sea,  and  the 
fowl  of  the  air,  and  every  living  thing  that 
moves  on  the  earth,  subduing  even  the 
earth  itself.  Man  makes  the  fish  feed  him, 
and  the  sheep  clothe  him,  and  the  horse  and 
the  ox  draw  and  plow  for  him.  He  dikes 
out  the  ocean,  as  in  Holland;  and  opens  up 
harbors,  as  at  Port  Said;  and  digs  canals, 
as  at  Suez  and  Panama.  He  builds  railroads 
through  the  mountains,  as  at  Saint  Gothard, 


188  TEE  WORLD'S  CHILDHOOD 

in  the  Alps,  and  under  rivers  like  tke  Hud- 
son at  New  York.  He  binds  the  continents 
together  with  electricity  and  steam.  He 
pours  the  waters  of  lakes  and  rivers  across 
the  deserts  and  makes  them  blossom  like 
the  rose.  He  drains  pestilential  swamps  and 
makes  gardens  out  of  them.  But  this  is 
only  the  outer  surface  of  man^s  supremacy 
over  nature.  He  takes  the  sand  under  his 
feet  and  turns  it  into  lenses,  its  clay  into 
endless  blocks  of  bricks,  its  granite  into 
stalwart  buildings,  its  iron  into  countless 
shapes  for  bridges  and  heaven-reaching  con- 
structions. He  subsidizes  its  vegetable 
products,  making  its  grains  feed  him,  its  cot- 
tons clothe  him,  its  forests  house  him,  its 
coals  warm  him,  and  its  electric  currents 
give  him  light.  See  how  man  takes  dominion 
over  the  mechanical  powers  of  nature,  mak- 
ing the  air  waft  his  ships,  the  water  run 
his  mills,  the  heat  move  his  engines,  the 
electricity  bear  his  messages,  turning  the 
very  law  of  gravitation  into  a  force  of 
buoyancy.  Surely  in  our  day  man,  more 
than  ever  before,  is  coming  rapidly  into 
dominion  over  this  wonderful  home  in  which 
God  has  placed  him. 


MAN  CREATED  IN  GOD'S  IMAGE  189 


Our  theme  suggests  to  us  the  dignity  of 
man  above  all  other  created  things.  As 
Pulsford  says,  it  shows  man's  height  and 
depth  and  breadth  and  mystery.  He  did 
not  come  from  one  principle  or  distinction  of 
the  divine  nature,  but  out  of  all  principles. 
Man  is  the  image  of  the  whole  Deity.  There 
is  in  him  a  sanctuary  for  the  Father,  for 
the  Son,  and  for  the  Holy  Ghost.  Man's 
creation  called  for  a  council  in  heaven.  Note 
the  difference  in  the  expressions  concerning 
the  other  creative  epochs.  In  the  others 
we  read,  **And  God  said.  Let  there  be 
light,''  **Let  there  be  a  firmament,"  **Let 
the  waters  under  the  heaven  be  gathered 
together, "  *  *  Let  the  dry  land  appear, "  *  ^  Let 
there  be  lights  in  the  firmament  of  heaven, ' ' 
*'Let  the  waters  swarm  with  swarms  of  liv- 
ing creatures,"  *'Let  the  earth  bring  forth 
the  living  creatures,"  and  it  was  so.  But 
now,  how  different!  There  is  a  council  in 
heaven,  and  we  read,  *'And  God  said.  Let  us 
make  man  in  our  image,  after  our  likeness." 

Joseph  Parker  says  that  there  is  no 
bolder  sentence  in  all  human  speech  than 


190  THE  WOULD 'S  CBILDEOOV 

that  which  declares  that  man  was  made  in 
God's  image.  He  says  it  takes  an  infinite 
liberty  with  God  and  is  blasphemy  if  it  is 
not  the  truth.  We  have  been  so  accustomed 
to  look  at  the  statement  from  the  human 
standpoint  that  we  have  forgotten  how 
deeply  the  divine  character  itself  is  im- 
plicated. If  some  man  were  to  tell  us  that 
all  the  sign-boards  in  Italy  were  painted 
by  Eaphael  or  Michelangelo,  it  would  be 
to  dishonor  the  great  artists.  We  would 
resent  the  suggestion  that  Beethoven  or 
Handel  is  the  author  of  all  the  noise  that 
passes  under  the  name  of  music.  Yet  here 
we  come  face  to  face  with  the  statement  that 
God  made  man  in  His  own  likeness.  Some- 
times we  look  at  men,  and  that  does  look 
like  an  impossible  thing.  We  look  at  lying, 
drunken,  selfish  men;  plotting,  scheming, 
cruel  men;  foolish,  vain,  babbling  men; 
prodigal  man,  wandering  in  wildernesses  in 
search  of  the  impossible,  sneaking  in  for- 
bidden places  with  the  crouch  of  the  crimi- 
nal, putting  his  finger  in  human  blood  and 
musing  as  to  its  probable  price  per  gallon — 
Ah,  it  seems  impossible.  When  we  look  at 
this    depraved    and    marred    and    dwarfed 


MAIf  CBEATED  IN  GOD'S  IMAGE  191 

kind  of  manhood,  we  are  ready  to  cry  out: 
**Is  this  heaven's  lame  success  in  self -re- 
production T'  It  seems  enough  to  ruin  any 
Bible  to  have  such  a  statement  in  it.  Ah, 
but  that  is  only  on  the  surface.  We  must 
go  deeper.  When  we  look  at  the  idiot's 
leering  face  and  the  sensualist's  bloated 
features  and  the  puppet's  powdered  and 
painted  countenance,  we  have,  not  seen  the 
real  man,  the  real  woman.  We  pass  these 
poor  bankrupts  in  character  as  a  man  passes 
a  church  or  a  cathedral  that  seems  rough 
and  unattractive  on  the  outside  and  sees  not 
within.  The  sinful  man  is  greater  than  his 
sin.  God  sees  him  and  loves  him  in  all  his 
shame  and  ruin.  And  there  is  that  within 
him  which  proves  his  likeness  to  God  in 
that  he  has  power  when  divinely  taught  and 
led  to  throw  off  all  this  ugly  and  repulsive 
appearance  and  walk  forth  in  beauty  and 
moral  splendor.  Some  races  have  been 
found  that  seemed  very  low  indeed,  like 
Darwin's  Patagonian  Indians,  whom  he 
thought  to  be  lower  even  than  four-footed 
beasts,  and  yet  after  twenty-five  years  of 
missionary  work  among  them,  Darwin  came 
back  and  was  glad  to  call  them  brothers. 


192  TEE  WORLD'S  CHILDHOOD 

We  sometimes  see  in  the  slums  of  the  great 
city  men  so  depraved  and  vicious  that  the 
image  of  God  seems  to  have  been  lost.  But 
out  of  the  worst  gang  that  ever  infested 
New  York  City,  after  years  of  skulking 
thievery,  came  Jerry  McCauley,  who  became 
a  saint  of  God,  gloriously  blest  of  Him 
in  winning  multitudes  to  righteousness.  My 
friends,  we  need  to  tread  reverently  even 
among  the  jungles  of  humanity,  where  the 
weeds  are  rankest,  and  the  desert  desola- 
tion most  appalling;  for  in  every  man  there 
is  a  buried  magnificence,  worthy  to  com- 
mand reverence  and  awe.  We  need  to  make 
much  of  this  inner  life  of  the  soul.  Our 
physical  lives  are  very  frail.  A  great  many 
of  the  beasts  of  the  earth  and  many  even 
among  the  birds  of  the  air  are  more 
tenacious  of  life,  and  have  a  more  secure 
tenure  than  we.  Our  glory  is  in  the  inner 
being,  where  we  were  made  in  the  likeness  of 
God,  and  which  shall  go  on  living  forever. 
A  keeper  in  the  British  museum  once  found 
pinned  to  a  skeleton  which  is  among  the 
specimens  preserved  in  that  institution  a 
poem  entitled,  ** Lines  to  a  Skeleton."  In- 
terested   and    persistent    search   was    long 


MAN  CREATED  IN  GOD'S  IMAGE  193 

made  for  the  author,  but,  tho  after  a  time 
five  hundred  dollars  was  offered,  the  author 
was  never  discovered.  These  lines  set  forth 
with  great  clearness  the  superior  value  of 
the  unseen  life  over  the  life  of  the  physical 
house  in  which  our  real  life  is  carried  on ; 


Behold  this  ruin!     'Twas  a  skull 

Once,  of  ethereal  spirit  full; 

This  narrow  cell  was  life's  retreat; 

This  space  was  thought's  mysterious  seat. 

What    beauteous    visions    filled    this    spot, 

What  dreams  of  pleasure  long  forgot, — 

Nor  hope,  nor  joy,  nor  love,  nor  fear. 

Has  left  one  trace  of  record  here. 

Beneath  this  moldering  canopy 
Once  shone  the  bright  and  busy  eye; 
But  start  not  at  the  dismal  void! 
If  social  love  that  eye  employed, 
If  with  no  lawless  fire  it  gleamed, 
But  through  the  dew  of  kindness  beamed, 
That  eye  shall  be  forever  bright 
When  stars  and  sun  are  sunk  in  night. 

Within  this  hollow  cavern  hung 

The  ready,  swift,  and  tuneful  tongue; 

If  falsehood's  honey  it  disdained. 

And  where  it  could  not  praise  was  chained; 


IH  THM  WOULD' S  CHILDHOOD 

If  bold  in  virtue's  cause  it  spoke, 
Yet  gentle  concord  never  broke, — 
This  silent  tongue  shall  plead  for  thee 
When  time  unveils  eternity. 

Say,  did  these  fingers  delve  the  mine, 
Or  with  its  envied  rubies  shine? 
To  hew  the  rock  or  wear  the  gem 
Avails  but  little  now  to  them; 
But  if  the  page  of  truth  they  sought. 
Or  comfort  to  the  mourners  brought. 
These  hands  a  richer  meed  shall  claim 
Than  all  that  wait  on  wealth  of  fame. 

Avails  it  whether  bare  or  shod 
These  feet  the  paths  of  duty  trod? 
If  from  the  halls  of  ease  they  fled 
To  seek  affliction's  humble  shed. 
If  grandeur's  guilty  tribe  they  spurned. 
And  home  to  virtue's  cot  returned, — 
These  feet  with  angel's  wings  shall  vie. 
And  tread  the  portals  of  the  sky. 


n 

The  supreme  evidence  of  the  truthfulness 
of  the  statement  of  our  text  is  in  the  person 
of  Jesus  Christ.  Here  we  have  a  man 
who  fills  to  the  full  the  picture  outlined 
here.    Dr.  Newell  Dwight  Hillis,  in  a  great 


MAN  CREATED  IN  GOD'S  IMAGE  195 

discourse  on  ^^The  Witness  of  Nature  to 
God,"  says  that  the  golden  ladder  which 
is  set  on  the  rock  of  the  earth  finds  its 
summit  in  the  life  of  Jesus.  One  of  the 
things  that  nature  and  life  oifer  us,  in  addi- 
tion to  the  laws  of  light  and  heat  and 
gravity,  is  a  Life,  a  Man  that  lived  and 
walked  over  the  hills  of  Galilee.  He  un- 
rolled His  heart  as  a  flower  unrolls  its 
crimson  secret.  He  took  the  children  in 
His  arms  and  pointed  to  the  angels  who 
guarded  them.  He  touched  the  rags  of  a 
beggar  boy  and  made  them  seem  silken. 
His  tears  fell  upon  the  stained  hands  of  an 
outcast  girl  and  mercy,  falling  like  heaven's 
dew,  washed  the  little  red  hand  clean.  He 
stood  beside  the  prodigal  and  whispered, 
**Made  in  the  image  of  God.'*  He  saw  the 
people,  poor,  ignorant,  marred  with  sick- 
ness, stained  with  sorrow,  and  He  had  com- 
passion toward  them,  for  they  were  as  sheep 
that  had  no  shepherd.  And  when  the 
man  went  down  beneath  the  oppressor's 
heel,  He  pointed  to  the  stars  and  whimpered 
words  of  hope.  He  called  the  Unseen 
Force  that  makes  for  righteousness  his 
Father.    Jesus  recognized  that  man  was  of 


196  THE  WOBLD'S  CHILDHOOD 

infinite  worth  because  the  intellect  that  was 
little  in  man  answers  to  the  genius  that 
was  large  in  God.  Jesus  loved  the  birds 
and  the  flowers  and  the  stars  because  His 
Father  was  the  artist  who  made  them. 
Jesus  bade  us  live  on  this  earth  in  unending 
happiness  because  it  was  the  floor  of  His 
Father's  house,  because  it  was  fitted  up  icfr 
God's  dear  children  as  no  palace  is  fitted 
up  for  a  prince's  child.  When  man's  tears 
fell,  He  whispered  that  there  was  a  divine 
hand  that  would  wipe  them  away.  When  the 
youth  stumbled  and  sinned,  He  urged  that 
there  was  a  divine  mercy  that  would  pity 
and  forgive.  And  when  the  eyes  of  the 
sweet  mother,  the  old  hero,  or  the  little 
child  closed  in  death.  He  smiled  and  said, 
*^In  my  Father's  house  are  many  mansions." 
My  friends,  it  is  in  Jesus  that  we  see  the 
supreme  evidence  of  our  dignity  and  our 
glory.  And  we  are  invited  to  become  like 
Him.  We  are  marred  and  hurt  and  de- 
faced, but  David  says,  **He  restoreth  my 
soul,"  and  John  says  that  the  man  who 
gets  into  his  heart  the  hope  of  becoming 
like  Christ,  ''purifieth  himself,  even  as  he 
is  pure."    You  think  of  entering  upon  the 


MAN  CREATED  IN  GOD'S  IMAGE  197 

Christian  life  and  entering  into  the  Chnrch 
of  Christ  and  you  pause  on  the  threshold 
timid  and  afraid.  You  say  to  yourself, 
*^I  am  not  good  enough  to  take  upon  me  this 
great  obligation.''  My  friend,  for  that  very 
reason  you  should  without  delay  make  this 
great  attempt,  for  it  is  not  alone,  not  in  your 
own  inspiration  or  in  your  own  strength, 
that  you  must  go.  No,  indeed;  the  same 
Christ  who  came  and  lived  among  us  to 
show  what  our  manhood  could  be  like,  and 
who  died  on  the  cross  to  redeem  us  from  our 
sins,  says,  '^Him  that  cometh  unto  me,  I 
will  in  no  wise  cast  out."  He  will  walk 
the  way  of  life  with  us,  and  in  His  strength 
and  fellowship  we  shall  lose  our  imper- 
fections and  grow  into  His  likeness. 


THE  GARDEN  OF  EDEN 

"God   planted   a  garden,   eastward,   in   Eden." — Gen. 

2:8.  • 

IT  is  a  very  interesting  and  significant 
fact  that  traditions  of  the  Garden  of 
Eden  have  been  handed  down  from  genera- 
tion to  generation  among  nearly  all  the 
tribes  of  men.  The  scholarly  Kalisch  says 
that  Paradise  is  no  exclusive  feature  of  the 
earliest  history  of  the  Hebrews;  most  of 
the  ancient  nations  have  similar  narratives 
about  a  happy  abode,  which  care  does  not 
approach,  and  which  re-echoes  with  the 
sounds  of  the  purest  bliss.  The  Greeks 
believed  that  at  an  immense  distance,  be- 
yond the  Pillars  of  Hercules,  on  the  borders 
of  the  earth,  were  the  islands  of  the  blest, 
the  elysium,  abounding  in  every  charm  of 
life,  and  the  Garden  of  the  Hesperides,  with 
golden  apples,  guarded  by  an  ever-watchful 
serpent.  But  still  more  analogous  is  the 
legend  of  the  Hindus,  that  in  the  sacred 
mountain  Meru,  which  is  perpetually  clothed 

198 


TEE  GABDEN  OF  EDEN  19^ 

in  the  golden  rays  of  the  sun,  and  whose 
lofty  summit  reaches  into  heaven,  no  sinful 
man  can  exist;  that  it  is  guarded  by  dread- 
ful dragons;  that  it  is  adorned  with  many 
celestial  plants  and  trees,  and  is  watered 
by  four  rivers,  which  thence  separate,  and 
flow  to  the  four  chief  directions.  Equally 
striking  is  the  resemblance  in  the  belief  of 
the  Persians,  who  suppose  that  a  region 
of  bliss  and  delight,  the  town  Erriene 
Vedsho  or  Heden,  more  beautiful  than  the 
whole  rest  of  the  world,  traversed  by  a 
mighty  river,  was  the  original  abode  of 
the  first  men  before  they  were  tempted  by 
Ahriman,  in  the  shape  of  a  serpent,  to 
partake  of  the  wonderful  fruit  of  the  for- 
bidden tree  Hom.  And  the  books  of  the 
Chinese  describe  a  garden  near  the  gate 
of  heaven  where  a  perpetual  zephyr 
breathes ;  it  is  irrigated  by  abundant  springs, 
the  noblest  of  which  is  the  ^^  Fountain  of 
Life";  and  abounds  in  delightful  trees, 
one  of  which  bears  fruits  which  have  the 
power  of  preserving  and  prolonging  the 
existence  of  man.  All  these  are  significant 
as  showing  that  mankind  is  of  one  origin 
and  that  the*  beauty  of  man's  first  home,  the 


200  THE  WOBLD'S  CHILDHOOD 

bliss  of  his  surrounding,  and  the  tragedy  of 
his  expulsion  made  an  ineffaceable  mark 
upon  the  heart  of  universal  mankind. 


It  will  be  interesting  and  profitable  for 
us  to  note  in  connection  with  our  present 
theme  the  gardens  of  the  Bible  in  which 
Grod  is  specially  present.  Our  first  garden 
gives  us  our  theme.  The  name  Eden  signi- 
fies pleasure:  and  it  is  certainly  true  even 
to  this  day  that  the  idea  of  pleasure  is 
inseparable  from  that  of  a  garden.  The 
farmer  may  think  about  his  great  fields  only 
with  reference  to  hard  toil  and  unromantic 
business  results,  but  about  his  garden  there 
is  something  different.  It  is  not  only  for 
food,  but  for  beauty  as  well.  When  old 
Diocletian  was  invited  from  his  retreat,  to 
resume  the  royal  purple  which  he  had  laid 
down  some  years  before,  he  exclaimed: 
^^  Could  you  but  see  those  fruits  and  herbs 
of  mine  own  raising  at  Salona,  you  would 
never  talk  to  me  of  empire!" 

Bishop  Home  says  that  we  must  believe 
that   God   esteemed   the  life   of  man   in   a 


TEE  GARDEN  OF  EDEN  201 

garden  the  happiest  he  could  give  him,  or 
else  He  would  not  have  placed  Adam  in  that 
of  Eden.  The  Garden  of  Eden  had,  doubt- 
less, all  the  perfection  it  could  receive  from 
the  hands  of  Him  who  ordained  it  to  be  the 
mansion  of  His  favorite  creature.  It  was 
morning  with  man  and  the  world.  As  man 
was  made  for  the  contemplation  of  God 
here,  and  for  the  enjoyment  of  Him  here- 
after, we  can  not  imagine  that  his  knowl- 
edge would  terminate  on  earth,  tho  it  took 
its  rise  there.  Like  the  patriarch's  ladder, 
its  foot  was  on  earth,  but  its  top,  doubtless, 
reached  to  heaven.  By  it  the  mind  ascended 
from  the  creatures  to  the  Creator,  and  de- 
scended from  the  Creator  to  the  creatures. 
It  was  the  golden  chain  which  connected 
matter  and  spirit,  preserving  a  communica- 
tion between  the  two  worlds.  AMienever  the 
Garden  of  Eden  is  mentioned  in  the  Scrip- 
tures, it  is  called  '*The  Garden  of  God,'*  or 
**The  Garden  of  the  Lord" — expressions 
which  denote  the  immanence  of  God  in  His 
world  and  the  tender  and  familiar  relation 
which  God  seeks  to  have  with  His  children. 
But  over  this  beautiful  scene  of  the 
world's  childhood  and  man's  morning,  which 


202  TRE  WORLD'S  CHILDHOOD 

promised  a  cloudless  day,  there  comes  the 
tragedy  of  sin  and  the  Eden  of  bliss  becomes 
a  haunting  memory  to  the  race.  It  is  a 
far  cry  from  the  Garden  of  Eden  to  the 
Garden  of  Gethsemane,  but  they  have  very 
intimate  relations.  The  tragedy  enacted 
in  the  one  is  the  reason  for  the  tragedy  of 
the  other,  and  when  we  go  out  into  the 
garden  on  the  Mount  of  Olives  with  Jesus 
and  His  disciples  after  they  have  taken  the 
last  supper  together,  and  we  see  Christ 
kneeling  there  alone  in  the  garden,  apart 
from  the  disciples,  and  hear  His  agonizing 
cry,  while  the  great  drops  of  bloody  sweat 
roll  down  His  brow,  *^If  it  be  possible,  let 
this  cup  pass  from  me;  nevertheless,  not 
my  will,  but  thine  be  done!''  we  see  the 
beginning  of  a  tragedy  which  is  to  end 
on  the  cross  of  Calvary.  And  the  agony 
of  atonement  for  sin  which  we  see  in  the 
Garden  of  Gethsemane  has  to  do  with  the 
tragedy  of  sin  of  which  we  learn  in  this 
Garden  of  Eden. 

The  next  garden  is  close  at  hand.  It  is 
the  garden  of  Joseph,  who  had  had  a  new 
tomb  built  against  the  day  of  his  own 
burial.     But  when  he  was   convinced   that 


TEE  GARDEN  OF  EDEN  203 

Jesus  was  the  Christ,  and  had  stood  amid 
the  throng  that  sneered  and  hooted  at  the 
dying  Son  of  God  and  heard  Him  pray  for 
His  murderers,  *^  Father,  forgive  them,  for 
they  know  not  what  they  do!''  he  went 
away  to  Pilate  and  begged  the  privilege  of 
carrying  the  body  of  Jesus  into  his  own 
beautiful  garden  where  his  new  tomb  had 
been  built.  It  was  in  this  garden  that 
Nicodemus  and  Joseph  and  the  faithful 
women  who  never  deserted  Him  tenderly 
laid  the  body  of  Jesus.  Into  this  garden 
the  soldiers  came,  and  after  Pilate  had 
put  the  seal  of  the  Eoman  Empire  on  the 
closed  tomb,  these  old  veteran  soldiers  kept 
watch,  trying  to  keep  a  dead  man  in  his 
grave.  But  they  were  not  strong  enough, 
for  soon  came  Easter  morning,  the  angel 
came  down  from  heaven,  and  the  light  of 
his  face  so  overwhelmed  the  soldiers  that 
they  fell  like  dead  men,  the  Eoman  seal 
was  broken,  the  stone  rolled  back  from 
the  door  of  the  tomb,  and  Jesus  came 
forth  in  mighty  power  to  live  forever. 

There  is  still  another  garden  which  has 
to  do  with  all  the  others.  That  is  the 
garden   that  is   to   come,   the   Paradise   of 


204  THE  WOBLD'S  CHILDHOOD 

God.  John  saw  a  glimpse  of  it  in  his 
wonderful  vision  on  the  Isle  of  Patmos. 
He  says  o£  it:  **And  he  showed  me  a 
river  of  water  of  life,  bright  as  crystal, 
proceeding  out  of  the  throne  of  God  and  of 
the  Lamb.  In  the  midst  of  the  street 
thereof,  and  on  this  side  of  the  river  and 
on  that,  was  the  tree  of  life,  bearing  twelve 
manner  of  fruits,  yielding  its  fruit  every 
month:  and  the  leaves  of  the  tree  were 
for  the  healing  of  the  nations.  And  there 
shall  be  no  curse  any  more;  and  the  throne 
of  God  and  of  the  Lamb  shall  be  therein: 
And  his  servants  shall  serve  him:  And  they 
shall  see  his  face;  and  his  name  shall  be 
on  their  foreheads.  And  there  shall  be 
night  no  more;  and  they  need  no  light  of 
lamp,  neither  light  of  sun;  for  the  Lord 
God  shall  give  them  light:  and  they  shall 
reign  forever  and  ever." 


II 

We  find  here  in  this  first  garden  of  God, 
where  man  found  his  first  home,  the  dignity 
and  glory  of  work.  Man  was  put  into  the 
garden  not  simply  to  revel  in  it,  but  to  keep 


THE  GABDEN  OF  EDEN  205 

it  and  to  dress  it.  God  made  it  beautiful 
to  look  at,  fragrant  to  the  smell,  and  de- 
lightful to  the  eyes ;  but  man  was  to  take  care 
of  it.  It  was  made  beautiful  that  he  might 
enjoy  his  labor,  but  the  work  was  no  less 
necessary  and  important  on  that  account. 
Work  is  the  natural  and  normal  condition 
of  mankind.  Work  did  not  come  because  of 
sin.  Work  is  not  a  punishment  for  sin. 
Before  sin  had  found  its  way  into  the  world, 
man  was  already  a  worker  by  the  command 
of  God.  Indeed,  if  Eve  had  been  at  work 
instead  of  experimenting  with  her  curiosity, 
she  would  have  escaped  the  awful  tragedy. 
There  is  no  armor  to  protect  us  from 
temptation  equal  to  that  of  good,  wholesx)me, 
honest  work.  Idleness  is  always  the  nesting- 
place  for  sin.  The  shameful  sins  that 
have  disgraced  so  many  of  -the  very  wealthy 
and  prominent  men  and  women -of  our  great 
cities  during  the  last  decade  have  been  very 
largely  the  sins  born  of  idleness.  To  be 
healthy,  mentally,  morally,  and  physically, 
we  all  need  to  have  plenty  of  good  whole- 
some work. 

Every  one  of  us  has  at  least  two  gardens 
to  look  after.    First,  there  is  the  garden  in 


206  TKE  WORLD'S  CHILDHOOD 

our  own  hearts,  the  garden  in  each  indi- 
vidual soul.  True,  the  garden  is  no  longer 
an  Eden.  An  enemy  hath  come  and  sown 
tares  in  it.  Instead  of  the  fir-tree  has  come 
up  the  thorn,  and  instead  of  the  myrtle-tree 
has  come  up  the  brier.  But,  thank  God, 
the  soil  out  of  which  the  garden  of  Eden  can 
be  developed  still  lies  latent  within  every 
one  of  us.  Some  one  says  that  like  seeds 
which  have  for  ages  lain  buried  beneath 
the  soil  of  our  primeval  forests,  there  lie 
deep  down  in  the  sub-soil  of  our  moral 
natures  the  germs  of  giant  spirit  powers  and 
experiences.  Fallen  as  we  are,  we  are  capa- 
ble of  being  redeemed,  reinstated  in  the 
conscious  son-ship  to  our  Heavenly  Father. 
When  we  let  Jesus  Christ  become  the 
gardener  in  our  hearts,  the  chief  gardener, 
while  under  Him  we  do  His  will,  it  is 
wonderful  what  beautiful  flowers  and  plants 
will  grow  and  bloom  in  the  garden  of 
our  hearts.  Some  of  you  have  become  dis- 
gusted with  your  own  inner  selves  and  never 
like  to  be  left  alone  to  contemplate  the 
moral  weeds  that  have  grown  up  in  your 
soul.  If  you  would  but  yield  the  direction 
of  your  soul  garden  to  Jesus   Christ,   the 


TKE  GABDEN  OF  EDEN  207 

beauty  and  loveliness  which  He  would  soon 
bring  into  existence  there  would  be  beyond 
your  fondest  dreams. 

In  addition,  every  one  of  us  is  a  gardener 
in  relation  to  the  community  in  which  we 
live.  Alas,  some  sow  only  weeds  and  poison- 
ous plants  that  put  danger  and  death  in  the 
path  of  others.  But  we  are  intended  to 
be  a  blessing  to  others.  No  man  liveth  to 
himself.  We  must  either  do  good  or  evil 
to  those  about  us.  What  sort  of  seeds 
are  you  planting  in  the  hearts  of  your 
neighbors?  We  who  are  Christians  should 
especially  be  aroused  to  the  great  truth 
suggested  in  our  theme,  that  we  are  put 
into  this  garden  of  the  world  to  help  dress  it 
and  keep  it.  Nothing  will  kill  out  the 
religious  life  so  quickly  as  idleness.  Dr. 
George  Truett,  in  a  recent  evangelistic 
sermon  on  the  desire  of  those  Greeks  who 
came  to  Christ's  disciples  saying,  ^^Sirs,  we 
would  see  Jesus,''  declares  that  modern 
Christians  in  order  to  see  Jesus  must  be 
busy  for  Him.  The  indolent  Christian  can 
not  see  much  or  know  much  of  Jesus.  Idle- 
ness is  one  of  the  most  terrible  foes  to 
gra(5e.     It   is    the   running   stream   that   is 


208  TEE  WOBLD'S  CHILDHOOD 

the  healthy  stream.  The  stagnant  pond 
breeds  mosquitoes  and  malaria  and  death. 
Many  a  Christian  who  is  spiritually  sick,  he 
knows  not  why,  would  thrill  with  a  new 
joy  and  new  visions  ^of  Jesus  if  only  he 
would  be  busy  for  Him.  Doubt,  unbelief, 
despondency,  are  all  cut  to  pieces  by  in- 
dustry and  activity.  Jesus  says,  **If  any 
man  will  do  his  will,  he  shall  know  of  the 
doctrine.''  It  is  in  the  activity,  in  the 
doing,  that  doubt  perishes  and  faith  and 
courage  are  fed  their  elixir  of  life. 

I  read  a  story  recently  of  a  young  fellow 
Aj^rho  had  lived  for  a  time  a  very  joyous 
Christian  life,  but  who  had  fallen  into  a  very 
low  and  uninteresting  state  spiritually.  He 
had  come  to  have  many  doubts  and  fears 
concerning  the  great  doctrines  of  Chris- 
tianity. He  was  very  unhappy,  and  finally 
came  to  his  pastor  and  opened  his  heart  to 
him.  The  pastor  listened  to  it  all  with  a 
heart  beating  with  tenderest  pity  for  the 
youth.  When  the  boy  was  done  the  pastor 
said,  **It  is  a  most  serious  hour  for  you, 
my  friend ;  will  you  do  me  a  favor  this  after- 
noon?'' The  boy's  face  brightened,  and 
he  said,  ^*I  will,  with  pleasure;    I  will  be 


THE  GABDEN  OF  EDEN  209 

glad  to  do  anything  I  can  for  you.'*  The 
pastor  said,  *^I  wish  very  much  to  have 
you  go  for  a  visit  this  afternoon  to  an  old 
blind  man.  He  is  a  very  intelligent  man,  but 
he  has  lost  his  sight  altogether.  He  is  so 
poor  that  he  is  unable  to  hire  any  one  to 
come  and  read  to  him,  tho  that  is  his 
greatest  comfort.  I  will  be  much  obliged  if 
you  will  call  on  him  this  afternoon  and 
read  to  him  several  chapters  from  the 
Bible.  *' 

The  young  fellow  turned  pale.  How  could 
he  do  it?  What  should  he  read?  But  when 
he  suggested  his  fears  to  the  pastor,  he 
gave  him  a  list  of  chapters  to  ready  and 
asked  him  to  come  back  again  at  seven 
that  evening  and  tell  him  about  his  visit. 
The  day  passed  by,  and  at  seven  the  pastor 
was  waiting  for  the  young  man  with  a 
good  deal  of  interest.  He  was  promptly  on 
time,  and  came  in  with  a  transformed  face. 
All  the  leaden  sadness  and  doubt  had  dis- 
appeared. Instead,  his  face  was  eager,  and 
laughter  and  tears  chased  each  other  in 
bis  enthusiastic  sympathy.  Before  the 
pastor  could  speak  or  question  him,  he 
cried  out,  *  *  Say  not  a  word  about  my  giving 


210  TEE  WOBLD'S  CHILDHOOD 

up  the  Church — about  my  doubts  and  fears. 
When  I  read  to  the  old  blind  man,  he  be- 
came so  happy  that  he  shouted  for  joy, 
and  I  think  before  he  got  done  I  shouted 
too.  Oh,  I  have  learned  my  lesson — ^hence- 
forth I  will  be  busy  for  my  Lord.'' 

George  Macdonald,  the  poet  preacher,  has 
put  with  graphic  clearness  the  price  we  must 
pay  if  we  are  to  be  true  gardeners  in  God's 
garden  of  the  world: 

I  said,  *'Let  me  walk  in  the  fields"; 

He  said,  ''Nay,  walk  in  the  town"; 
I  said,  ''There  are  no  flowers  there"; 

He  said,  "No  flowers,  but  a  crown." 

I  said,  "But  the  sky  is  black. 

There  is  nothing  but  noise  and  din"; 

But  He  wept  as  He  sent  me  back — 

"There  is  more,"  He  said.    "There  is  sin." 

I  said,  "But  the  air  is  thick 

And  fogs  are  veiling  the  sun"; 
He  answered,  ' '  Yet  souls  are  sick. 

And  souls  in  the  dark  undone." 

I  said,  "I  shall  miss  the  light. 

And  my  friends  will  miss  me,  they  say"; 
He  answered  me,  "Choose  to-night 

If  I  am  to  miss  you,  or  they." 


TEE  GARDEN  OF  EDEN  2X1 

I  pleaded  for  time  to  be  given; 

He  said,  ^'Is  it  hard  to  decide? 
It  will  not  seem  hard  in  heaven 

To  have  followed  the  steps  of  your  Guide." 

I  cast  one  look  at  the  fields, 

Then  set  my  face  to  the  town; 
He  said:  **My  child,  do  you  yield? 

Will  you  leave  the  flowers  for  the  crown  ? ' ' 

Then  into  His  hand  went  mine, 

And  into  my  heart  came  He, 
And  I  walk  in  a  light  divine 

The  path  I  had  feared  to  see.  ^ 


MARRIAGE  AND  THE  FAMILY 

**God  said,  It  is  not  good  that  the  man  should  be 
alone;  I  will  make  him  a  helpmeet  for  him/' — 
Gen.  2:18. 

JOSEPH  Pabker,  commenting  on  the  lone- 
liness of  Adam,  even  in  the  Garden  of 
Eden,  when  left  to  himself  without  com- 
radeship, says  that  God,  who  is  always  think- 
ing about  what  would  be  for  man's  good, 
did  not  make  another  man  to  be  his  com- 
rade, because  if  He  had,  one  would  have 
killed  the  other,  as  Cain  killed  Abel.  It 
seems  to  be  one  of  the  deepest  laws  of  human 
nature  that  man  thrust  out  alone  with  man 
must  kill  him,  and  that  the  only  chance 
of  keeping  society  together  is  by  the 
marvelous  influence  of  woman.  For  man 
to  be  alone  means  suicide;  for  two  men  to 
be  together,  means  homicide;  woman  alone 
can  keep  society  moving  and  healthful.  The 
woman  and  the  little  child  are  the  saviors 
of  social  order  all  over  the  world.  For 
woman  to  be  alone  is  as  bad  as  for  man 

212 


MABEIAGE  AND  TEE  FAMILY  213 

to  be  alone.  Safety  is  in  contrast,  and  in 
mutual  complement.  Eeverence  for  woman- 
hood will  save  any  civilization  from  decay. 

Whether  you  take  this  story  told  in  these 
first  chapters  in  Genesis  as  a  literal  state- 
ment of  historical  facts,  or  whether  you 
take  it  as  a  poetical  biography  of  the  child- 
hood of  the  world,  really  makes  no  dilBfer- 
ence  as  to  the  importance  of  its  teaching. 
This  beautiful  notion  of  throwing  man  into 
a  deep  sleep  to  take  a  rib  from  him  as  the 
starting-point  of  a  divinely  planned  com- 
panionship is  very  beautiful  and  full  of 
very  tender,  significant  suggestion.  The 
greatest  blessings  that  come  to  us  are  those 
that  come  as  beautiful  surprises  as  the  free 
gift  of  God.  And  so  love,  which  deepens 
into  that  supreme  comradeship  of  human 
society,  can  not  be  brought  about  by  shrewd- 
ness or  scheming,  but  comes  as  the  breath 
of  the  springtime  of  heaven. 


The  picturesque  and  beautiful  imagery 
surrounding  this  story  of  the  first  marriage 
in  Eden  ought  to  silence  much  of  the  foolish 


214  TRE  WOMLD'S  CHILDHOOD 

and  absurd  discussion  carried  on  by  people 
who  ought  to  know  better  in  all  parts  of 
the  world.  It  is  an  absurd  discussion  to 
compare  men  and  women,  and  try  to  make 
out  that  one  is  brainier  than  the  other,  or 
that  one  is  superior  to  the  other.  It  is  the 
glory  of  the  sexes  that  they  are  not  alike 
and  yet  are  alike.  Some  scholar  comment- 
ing on  the  passage,  **I  will  make  him  a 
helpmeet  for  him,"  says  that  literally  it 
might  be  translated,  *^I  will  make  him  one 
over  against  him'* — a  counterpart.  Each  is 
the  equal  and  complement  of  the  other. 
There  can  be  no  true  comparison  between 
man  and  woman  which  implies  an  inferiority 
in  either,  for  each  has  what  the  other  lacks 
and  lacks  what  the  other  has.  The  distinc- 
tion of  sex  runs  through  intellect  and  heart 
and  sensibilities.  They  are  differently  con- 
stituted and  organized;  but  the  two  to- 
gether make  up  the  symmetrical  humanity. 
Woman  has  her  sphere,  and  they  are  com- 
rades and  helpmeets,  but  nothing  that 
essentially  unsexes  a  woman  can  fail  to  be 
a  curse  to  humanity  as  a  whole.  Tennyson 
never  sang  with  more  of  the  prophetic  in- 
sight than  when  he  wrote : 


MAEBIAGE  AND  THE  FAMILY  215 

The  woman's  cause  is  man's;  they  sink  or  rise 

Together,  dwarfed    or  Godlike,  bond  or  free, 

If  she  be  small,  slight  natured,  miserable, 

How  shall  man  grow? 

The  woman  is  not  undeveloped  man. 

But  diverse. 

Yet  in  the  long  years,  liker  must  they  grow, 
The  man  be  more  of  woman,  she  of  man; 
He  gain  in  sweetness  and  in  moral  height, 
She  mental  breadth,   nor  fail  in   childhood   care, 
Nor  lose  the  childlike  in  the  larger  mind. 

And  so  these  twain,  upon  the  skirts  of  Time 
Sit  side  by  side,  full-summed  in  all  their  powers 
Self-reverent  each,  and  reverencing  each ; 
Distinct  in  individualities 
But   like    each    other,    as   are   those   who   love. 

Then  comes  the  statelier  Eden  back  to  man; 

Then  reigns  the  world's  great  bridals,  chaste  and  calm, 

Then  springs  the  crowning  race  of  human  kind. 


II 


The  fellowship  of  married  love  and  the 
home  which  it  builds  is  God's  supreme  gift 
to  man  and  the  supreme  safeguard  of 
civilization.    It  is  the  most  important  thing 


210  TEE  WOBLD'S  CHILDHOOD 

in  all  our  human  life.  The  matter  of  supreme 
importance  in  the  nation  is  not  the  schools, 
nor  even  the  State  or  national  government, 
but  the  family  and  home  life  of  the  people. 
If  we  have  good  homes,  the  abode  of  love 
and  good  comradeship,  made  sacred  by 
the  divine  institution  of  marriage,  where 
childhood  is  protected  and  developed  and 
brought  to  manhood  and  womanhood  in  the 
atmosphere  of  mutual  love  and  faith,  out  of 
such  homes,  indeed,  builded  on  them  as  a 
base  work,  you  may  have  good  schools, 
good  government,  and  a  noble  civilization. 
But  the  pure  home  is  the  fountain  from 
which  everything  else  of  value  springs. 

It  is  well  not  to  get  away  from  this  idea 
of  comradeship  in  marriage.  Both  husband 
and  wife  are  dependent  upon  each  other  for 
their  truest  development  and  their  noblest 
success.  Under  our  Christian  dispensation, 
husband  and  wife  are  jointly  and  mutually 
partners  in  the  home,  and  the  child  is  to 
honor  father  and  mother  alike.  The  Chris- 
tian idea  of  marriage  is  that  married  life 
is  to  be  of  mutual  helpfulness  and  self- 
sacrifice.  Paul  declares  that  the  husband 
stands  in  relation  to  the  wife  as  Christ  does 


MAEEIAGE  AND  THE  FAMILY  217 

to  the  Church,  a  relation  of  infinite  love  and 
tenderness. 

Many  a  famous  man  has  come  to  his 
power  through  the  love  and  fidelity  of  his 
wife.  Oliver  Wendell  Holmes  once  said 
that  he  had  often  seen  a  tall  ship  glide  by 
against  the  tide,  as  if  drawn  by  some  in- 
visible bowline  with  a  hundred  strong  arms 
pulling  it.  Her  sails  unfilled,  her  streamers 
drooping,  she  had  neither  side-wheel  nor 
stern- wheel ;  still  she  moved  on,  stately,  in 
serene  triumph,  as  with  her  own  life.  But 
he  knew  that  on  the  other  side  of  the  ship, 
hidden  beneath  the  great  bulk  that  swam 
so  majestically,  there  was  a  little  toilsome 
steam-tug,  with  a  heart  of  fire  and  arms 
of  iron,  that  was  tugging  it  bravely  on;  and 
he  knew  that  if  the  little  steam-tug  untwined 
her  arm,  and  left  the  ship,  it  would  wallow 
and  roll  about,  and  drift  hither  and  thither, 
and  go  off  with  the  refluent  tide,  no  man 
knows  whither.  And  so  we  have  often  seen 
a  great  genius,  high-decked,  full-freighted, 
idle-sailed,  gay-pennoned,  that  but  for  the 
toiling  arms  and  brave,  warm-beating  heart 
of  the  faithful  little  wife  that  nestled  close 
to  him,  so  that  no  wind  or  wave  could  part 


218  THE  WOBLD'S  CHILDHOOD 

them,    would    have    gone    down    with    the 
stream  and  have  been  heard  of  no  more. 

And,  on  the  other  hand,  let  no  woman 
imagine  for  a  moment  that  there  is  any- 
greater  happiness  in  this  world  than  that 
which  comes  from  loving  fidelity  in  the 
home  life.  Mrs.  Browning,  herself  a  most 
loving  and  devoted  wife,  beautifully  sang; 

The  sweetest  lives  are  those  to  duty  wed, 

Whose  deeds,  both  great  and  small, 

Are  close-knit  strands  of  an  unbroken  thread, 

Where  love  ennobles  all. 

The  world  may  sound  no  trumpets,  ring  no  bells; 

The  Book  of  Life  the  shining  record  tells. 

Thy  love  shall  chant  its  own  beatitudes 

After  its  own  life-working.     A  child's  kiss 

Set  on  thy  sighing  lips  shall  make  thee  glad; 

A  poor  man  served  by  thee  shall  make  thee  rich; 

A  sick  man  helped  by  thee  shall  make  thee  strong; 

Thou  shalt  be  served  thyself  by  every  sense 

Of  service  which  thou  renderest. 


Ill 

The  fulfilment  of  the  ideal  of  family  life 
depends  upon  the  complete  sympathy  be- 
tween the  husband  and  the  wife,  on  their 


MABEIAGE  AND  THE  FAMILY  219 

love  and  their  hope  and  their  enthusiasm 
for  common  ends.  Out  in  the  Eocky  Moun- 
tains it  is  a  common  sight  to  see  a  train 
being  drawn  up  the  grade  by  two  loco- 
motives. The  grade  is  so  steep  and  the 
load  so  heavy  that  it  requires  the  com- 
bined power  of  the  two  engines  working  to- 
gether to  reach  the  summit.  So  the  build- 
ing up  of  a  true  home  life  is  a  matter  of 
such  momentous  importance  and  the  dif- 
ficulties in  the  way  are  so  varied  and  so 
complicated  that  it  requires  the  united  force 
and  sympathy  of  both  the  household  engines. 
Earth  holds  no  sadder  sight  than  that  of  a 
husband  and  wife  drifting  apart  in  their 
purposes,  ambitions,  and  interests.  The 
same  roof  is  over  their  heads  at  night;  they 
meet  to  partake  of  their  food  at  the  same 
table,  and  then  each  hastens  away,  seek- 
ing that  which  is  his  or  her  special  interest. 
The  beginnings  of  all  such  driftings  apart 
should  be  carefully  watched  for  and  at  once 
overcome. 


It  is  the  little  rift  within  the  lute 
That  by  and  by  will  make  the  music  mute 
And,  ever  widening,  slowly  silence  all. 


220  TRE  WORLD'S  CHILDHOOD 

The  little  rift  within  the  lover's  lute, 
Or  little  pitted  speck  in  garner 'd  fruit, 
That,  rotting  inward,  slowly  molders  all. 


IV 


The  most  beautiful  thing  about  this  picture 
of  the  first  marriage  in  Eden  is  the  ap- 
proving smile  of  God.  The  Heavenly  Father 
brooded  over  it  all  with  infinite  love.  The 
conscious  presence  of  God  was  as  natural 
to  them  in  their  innocence  as  the  perfume  of 
the  flowers,  or  the  breath  of  the  rivers 
that  watered  the  garden  of  Paradise.  And 
so  if  we  are  to  have  noble  homes  and  beauti- 
ful family  life  where  love  shall  be  at  its 
best  and  no  burdens  or  struggles  shall  be 
able  to  crush  out  hope,  we  must  not  leave 
God  out  of  account.  Make  the  home  *^of  the 
earth  earthy,"  where  only  secular  things 
are  talked  about,  where  only  worldly  suc- 
cess is  aspired  after,  and  you  will  corrupt 
its  atmosphere  to  such  a  point  of  unwhole- 
someness  that  the  noblest  life  and  the  most 
abiding  joy  will  be  impossible.  Take  re- 
ligion out  of  the  home,  do  away  with  prayer 
and  thoughts  of  eternity,  leave  the  spirit  of 


MABBIAGE  AND  THE  FAMILY  221 

worship  and  love  to  God  out  of  family  life, 
and  all  the  relations  between  husband  and 
wife,  between  parents  and  children,  to  a 
very  great  extent  lose  their  holy  and  sacred 
character.  On  the  other  hand,  how  many 
times  I  have  seen  a  home  that  has  been 
broken  by  sin  a!nd  vice,  where  husband  and 
wife,  once  devoted  and  loving,  had  lost 
the  joy  out  of  their  fellowship,  and  where 
childhood  was  being  robbed  of  all  that 
beautiful  sense  of  united  care  and  pro- 
tection that  children  know  in  a  home  full 
of  love  and  confidence — and  into  a  situation 
like  that  I  have  known  the  awakening  of 
husband  and  wife  to  a  sense  of  God  and  His 
love  which  led  to  worship  and  a  restoration 
of  spiritual  communion,  to  bring  together 
again  the  broken  fragments  of  that  home  and 
so  cement  them  by  the  wonderful  binding 
force  of  love  that  all  the  old  beauty  and 
joy  of  home  life  was  known  again.  I  have 
no  happier  memories  than  scenes  like  that 
which  it  has  been  my  privilege  to  have  a 
part  in  bringing  about  through  the  infinite 
grace  and  love  of  God. 

My  friends,  make  much  of  your  religion  if 
you  would  ask  much  of  God  in  the  happiness 


222  THE  WOBLD'S  CHILDHOOD 

of  your  home.  I  never  can  talk  on  this 
subject  without  a  tender  heart.  My  own 
childhood,  tho  it  was  lived  on  the  frontier 
among  the  rudest  physical  surroundings,  was 
so  glorified  by  love,  and  the  atmosphere  it 
breathed  was  so  fragrant  of  worship,  and 
so  full  of  inspiration  that  came  from  faith 
in  God  and  heaven  and  the  eternal  life, 
that  I  have  always  carried  it  in  my  heart  as 
the  richest  possible  inheritance  that  could 
have  come  to  me.  And  my  heart  grieves 
when  I  see  children  growing  up  without  re- 
ceiving that  tender  religious  teaching  from 
father  and  mother  which  was  the  sweetest 
thing  that  I  knew  in  my  childhood.  My 
friends,  if  you  want  your  children  to  rise  up 
and  call  you  blest,  and  remember  you 
after  you  are  gone  with  benedictions,  and 
tell  about  you  for  generations  with  reverent 
love,  then  I  pray  you  by  your  reverence  and 
your  loving  devotion  to  God  bring  the  divine 
presence  into  the  home  life  where  your 
children  are  growing  into  manhood  and 
womanhood. 


^^MABBIAGE  AND  THE  FAMILY  223 


Let  US  never  forget  that  the  home  is  the 
place  where  we  must  grow  old  and  die,  and 
should  therefore  be  kept  sweet  and  full  of 
comfort  against  the  days  of  weakness.  A 
few  years  ago  an  English  lawyer  was  called 
up  in  the  night  to  go  to  the  house  of  a 
farmer  several  miles  away.  On  arriving, 
he  found  that  the  farmer  was  dying,  and 
wished  to  make  a  will.  The  lawyer  asked 
for  pen,  ink,  and  paper.  There  happened 
to  be  neither  pen  nor  ink  in  the  house. 
The  lawyer  had  not  brought  any  himself, 
and  what  was  he  to  do!  '^Any  lead- 
pencils  T'  he  asked.  No,  they  had  none. 
The  farmer  was  sinking  fast,  tho  quite 
conscious.  At  last  the  lawyer  saw,  up  on 
the  side  of  the  bedroom  door,  column  upon 
column  of  figures  in  chalk.  So  he  took  a 
piece  of  chalk  and  wrote  out  on  the  smooth 
hearthstone  the  last  will  and  testament  of 
the  dying  man.  The  farmer  died  that  night. 
The  hearthstone  was  taken  up,  and  taken 
into  court,  duly  registered,  and  its  provisions 
executed.  As  I  read  that  strange  incident,  it 
occurred  to  me  that  that  was  not  the  only 


224  TEE  WOBLD'8  CHILDHOOD 

hearthstone  that  was  being  registered  in  a 
court-room,  and  that  if  a  man  could  stand 
the  registry  of  his  hearthstone,  there  was 
not  much  fear  from  any  other  record  that 
could  be  brought  against  him. 

The  wise  man  will  make  sweet  and 
fragrant  the  home  where  he  is  to  grow  old 
and  sicken  and  die.  The  homeless  Gold- 
smith sings: 

In  all  my  wanderings  round  this  world  of  care, 

In  all  my  griefs — and  God  has  given  my  share — 

I  still  had  hopes,  my  latest  hours  to  crown, 

Amid  these  humble  bowers  to  lay  me  down; 

To  husband  out  life's  taper  at  the  close, 

And  keep  the  flame  from  wasting  by  repose; 

I  still  had  hopes — for  pride  attends  us  still — 

Amidst  the  swains  to  show  my  book-learned  skill; 

Around  my  fire  an  evening  group  to  draw. 

And  lcU  of  all  I  felt  and  all  I  saw; 

And  as  a  hare,  whom  hounds  and  horn  pursue. 

Pants   to   the   place   from  whence   at   first   she  flew, 

I  still  had  hopes,  my  long  vexations  past, 

Here  to  return — and  die  at  home  at  last. 


PARLEYING  WITH  TEMPTATION 

**And  the  woman  said  unto  the  serpent.'^ — Gen.  3:  2. 

OME  people  have  sneered  at  the  idea  of 


s 


a  good  God  permitting  His  children, 
whom  He  loves,  to  be  tempted.  They  think 
that  life  would  be  a  great  deal  better  if  there 
had  been  no  possibility  of  evil.  Bnt  in  order 
to  do  that,  it  would  have  been  necessary  for 
us  to  have  been  made  without  any  will, 
blindly  obeying  instinct,  simply  animated 
machines.  Watkinson,  the  English  preacher, 
saw  a  certain  mechanism  described  as  being 
**fool-proof,'*  that  is,  the  machine  is  so  con- 
structed that  even  the  most  stupid  can  not 
easily  disarrange  it,  neither  can  they  well 
injure  themselves.  There  are  persons  who 
seem  to  think  that  this  world  should  have 
been  **fool-proof '';  that  it  ought  not  to  have 
been  easy  to  hurt  ourselves,  that  it  ought 
to  have  been  impossible  to  destroy  our- 
selves; we  ought  to  have  water  that  would 
not  drown,  fire  that  would  not  burn,  gases 
that  would  not  poison.    But  these  people  fail 

225 


226  TBE  WOELD'S  CHILDHOOV 

to  consider  that  if  it  were  possible  to  call 
into  existence  a  ^^fool-proof  *'  world,  it  would 
be  impossible  to  people  it  with  men  and 
women  and  children  with  the  hopes  and 
ambitions  and  possibilities  which  animate 
us.  We  owe  more  than  we  can  dream  to 
the  fact  and  imminence  of  danger.  It  is 
thus  that  our  faculties  are  disciplined,  that 
we  have  reached  strength  and  acuteness  of 
mind  and  body. 

Mark  Guy  Pearse  aptly  says  that  while  it 
is  true  we  might  have  been  placed  in  such 
circumstances  that  we  never  would  have  been 
tempted  and  therefore  would  not  have  fallen, 
but  then  again  we  would  not  have  risen. 
Innocence  is  not  a  virtue  until  it  has  had 
temptation  and  opportunity  to  sin;  then 
innocence  is  strengthened  by  resistance,  and 
exalted  by  victory  into  virtue.  Everywhere 
and  in  everything  that  is  a  poor,  languid, 
sickly  kind  of  life  which  never  had  a  chance 
of  overcoming.  Temptation  overcome  is  the 
way,  the  only  way,  to  the  very  throne  of 
God.  Suppose,  to  return  to  Watkinson's 
figure,  that  this  world  were  morally  **  fool- 
proof— that  is,  that  it  were  impossible 
for  us  to  go  wrong — what  manner  of  men 


PARLEYING  WITH  TEMPTATION  227 

should  we  be!  Not  men  at  all.  The  con- 
stitution of  things  does  not  tempt  us  to  go 
wrong,  but  the  possibility  of  transgression 
is  the  condition  of  our  greatness  and  its  per- 
fection. The  world  was  evidently  not  de- 
signed for  amiable  lunatics,  but  for  the 
wise,  the  strong,  the  faithful ;  and  such  are 
educated  into  perfection  through  difficulty 
and  temptation  and  danger. 

Amongst  the  brave  men  of  old  there  was  a 
notion  that  when  one  conquered  an  enemy 
the  strength  of  the  enemy  went  into  the 
conqueror,  and  he  became  so  much  stronger 
by  every  conquest,  and  thus  went  on  from 
strength  to  strength.  So  God  grows  His 
heroes  by  overcoming.  And  this  is  the  law 
of  all  great  success.  A  young  man  comes 
here  to  Kansas  City  to  enter  into  business 
or  professional  life.  He  does  not  expect  to 
get  on  without  any  struggle.  He  knows 
that  if  he  is  to  win  his  way,  he  must  work 
hard,  keep  his  eyes  open,  and  be  ready  to 
resist  temptations  to  weakness  and  dissipa- 
tion, and  strive  to  overcome.  If  he  has 
any  true  metal  in  him,  he  rejoices  in  real 
difficulties,  where  it  is  a  fair  ^ght  and  a 
chance  to  win  by  hard  work.     It  knits  the 


228  TEE  WORLD'S  CEtLDHOOD 

muscles  of  Ms  character;  it  develops  in 
him  courage,  determination,  and  heroism. 
So  you  can  never  develop  great  moral  char- 
acter without  the  resistance  of  temptation 
to  evil.  There  may  be  many  questions  about 
this  that  we  can  not  answer,  but  of  this  we 
are  sure,  we  never  could  have  been  the 
kind  of  men  and  women  pictured  to  us  in  the 
manhood  of  Jesus  Christ  without  the  dis- 
cipline of  temptation  overcome. 


What  I  have  said  in  this  introduction  ap- 
plies really  to  the  next  ten  sermons  in  our 
series,  but  it  seemed  more  appropriate  to 
have  it  come  here  at  the  opening  discussion 
of  this  question  of  temptation  to  sin.  Our 
special  theme  at  this  moment  is  the  danger 
of  parleying  with  evil;  the  weakness  that 
must  always  come  to  us  when  we  give  way 
to  a  discussion  with  the  tempter.  Eve's 
position  was  invulnerable  if  she  had  but 
turned  her  back  upon  Satan  and  given 
herself  in  loyalty  to  God.  But  when  she 
condescended  to  talk  the  matter  over  with 


PABLEYING  WITH  TEMPTATION  229 

the  enemy,  and  permitted  herself  to  listen 
to  his  sneers  and  insinuations  against  the 
goodness  and  truthfulness  of  God,  the  be- 
ginning of  the  end  was  in  sight.  People 
who  question  the  credibility  of  this  story 
of  temptation  in  the  Garden  of  Eden  are 
always  compelled  to  admit  that  whether  it  is 
accepted  as  a  literal  story  or  is  only  a 
poetic  or  allegorical  history  of  the  beginning 
of  evil,  it  is  nevertheless  true  to  life,  and 
as  true  to-day  as  on  any  day  in  the  history 
of  man. 

Dr.  McGee  Waters,  when  he  was  a  little 
boy,  had  for  his  companion  a  sister  two 
years  younger  than  himself.  They  had  for  a 
playmate  a  neighbor's  child  nine  or  ten  years 
of  age,  a  little  older  than  they.  This 
older  girl  seemed  to  the  younger  children 
to  be  the  sum  of  all  that  was  beautiful.  It 
was  a  great  treat  to  them  to  go  to  her 
house.  She  lived  in  a  much  bigger  house 
than  they  did,  and  she  was  the  only  child, 
and  her  parents  doted  on  her  and  denied  her 
almost  nothing.  One  rainy  afternoon  the 
younger  children  had  been  invited,  and 
had  gone  to  the  great  house,  and  in  the 
splendid  living-room  the  playthings  had  all 


230  TEE  WORLD'S  CHILDHOOD 

been  gathered  and  they  entered  into  their 
Eden.  They  played  store,  housekeeping, 
church,  and  many  other  things.  The  little 
girPs  mother  had  gone  away  for  an  hour 
or  two,  and  she  told  the  children  they  were 
to  have  a  good  time,  and  also  told  Edmonia, 
her  own  daughter,  that  she  was  not  to  cross 
the  hall  or  go  into  the  parlor.  The  children 
had  been  into  the  parlor  many  times  when 
the  mother  was  home  and  had  admired  the 
beautiful  things.  Among  other  things,  there 
was  a  cabinet  filled  with  rare  and  beautiful 
ceramics  and  miniatures.  There  was  also 
some  rare  china  which  the  lady  of  the  house 
prized  beyond  any  other  possession,  and  she 
had  told  the  children  that  it  had  belonged 
to  her  great  ancestor  when  she  had  en- 
tertained General  and  Lady  Washington, 
Edmonia  had  been  told  never  to  touch  these 
things,  and  how  exceedingly  valuable  they 
were,  and  how  some  day  they  would  be  hers. 
All  went  well  until  they  were  having  a 
dolPs  wedding,  and  in  preparing  for  the 
feast  the  children  suggested  how  grand  it 
would  be  to  use  the  Washington  china.  At 
first  Edmonia  was  firm.  Her  mother  had 
told  her  not  to  go  there  and  she  would  not. 


FABLE  YIN  G  WITH  TEMPTATION  231 

Then  the  little  boy  began  to  take  on  the 
airs  of  a  man  and  dared  Edmonia  to  use  the 
dishes.  She  refused  and  then  she  cried,  and 
then  the  boy  dared  her  some  more.  She  got 
mad  and  stamped  her  foot  and  sprang  up, 
ran  into  the  parlor,  turned  the  key  in  the 
cabinet  and  took  out  the  priceless  china  and 
brought  it  into  the  dolPs  wedding.  But 
somehow  they  did  not  enjoy  it,  and  the 
feast  was  spoiled.  Finally  one  of  the  three 
jumped  up  quickly  and  the  table  was  upset 
and  one  of  the  priceless  plates  was  broken 
into  bits,  and  all  three  children  burst  into 
tears.  It  was  not  anger  this  time,  but  terror 
and  regret  and  shame  that  shook  them 
with  sobs. 

The  little  boy  and  his  sister  went  home 
and  left  the  other  girl  to  face  her  judgment 
day  alone.  About  dark  that  night  the  lady 
came  rushing  over  to  their  house  and  wanted 
to  know  where  Edmonia  was.  She  said 
that  she  had  been  home  for  over  an  hour 
and  had  found  the  broken  plate,  and  had 
looked  everywhere  and  could  not  find  the 
little  girl.  She  had  called  and  called,  but 
there  had  been  no  reply.  The  alarm  was 
raised  and  all  the  neighbors  started  out  to 


232  TEE  WOBLD'S  CHILDHOOD 

find  her.  Just  about  the  time  they  were 
getting  desperate,  a  little  figure,  all  sobbing 
and  covered  with  straw,  came  rushing  into 
the  house.  She  had  felt  so  terribly  that 
she  had  made  up  her  mind  to  run  away. 
She  had  gotten  as  far  as  the  straw-rack  be- 
hind the  barn  and  crawled  in  there  and 
waited  to  die.  The  little  soul  suffered 
enough,  no  doubt,  to  die,  but  the  gathering 
shadows  of  the  night  brought  her  back  to  her 
mother  ^s  arms. 

Now,  my  friends,  you  have  there  the  whole 
story  of  the  Garden  of  Eden  in  miniature, 
and  most  of  us  could  people  it  ourselves 
and  portray  it  ourselves  out  of  our  own  ex- 
perience. The  danger  with  the  little  girl 
was  that  she  parleyed  with  the  boy  about 
it  and  allowed  herself  to  be  excited  with 
his  dare  and  challenge  to  disobey  her  mother. 
The  danger  with  Eve  was  that  she  listened 
to  the  tempter,  and  not  only  listened,  but 
talked  back  and  entered  into  conversation 
with  him,  and  that  parley  was  fatal. 

You  may  see  the  same  thing  in  reality 
pictured  from  another  point  of  view  in  the 
case  of  Esau  and  the  loss  of  his  birthright. 
He  comes  home  from  the  hunting,  having 


PARLEYING  WITH  TEMPTATION  233 

had  hard  luck,  and  is  hungry  and  asks 
Jacob  for  food.  Jacob  takes  advantage  of 
his  brother's  appetite  and  offers  to  trade 
him  a  dish  of  pottage  for  his  birthright. 

Now  Esau,  if  he  had  been  awake  to  his 
real  manhood,  would  nave  turned  away  from 
the  very  sight  and  smell  of  that  food  as  if 
it  were  a  deadly  poison.  For  to  lose  his 
birthright  was  to  forfeit  his  real  place  as 
a  man  on  earth,  his  true  relation  to  God 
and  to  his  family.  But  he  was  hungry,  and 
to  a  man  of  his  make-up  that  means  a  great 
deal.  He  stopt  to  parley  with  Jacob  and 
make  a  better  trade  if  he  could.  And  the 
more  he  looked  at  the  food,  and  smelled 
it,  the  more  it  seemed  to  him  that  it  was 
worth  all  the  birthrights  in  the  world.  The 
birthright  was  something  spiritual,  shadowy, 
and  unseen,  but  the  pot  of  lentils  smelled 
sweet  in  his  nostrils  and  bore  down  every- 
thing else.  He  feels  he  is  going  to  die. 
Prof.  Hugh  Black  says  that  a  man  of 
Esau's  type  is  always  sure  he  will  die  if 
he  does  not  get  what  he  wants  when  the 
passion  is  on  him;  and  supposing  he  does 
die,  it  will  be  poor  consolation  that  he  did 
not    barter    this    intangible    and    shadowy 


234  THE  WOBLD'S  CHILDHOOD 

blessing  of  his  birthright.  ''Behold  I  am  at 
the  point  to  die;  and  what  profit  shall  this 
birthright  do  to  me?" 

Now,  in  all  these  cases  the  lesson  is  prac- 
tically the  same.  To  parley  with  the 
tempter,  to  admit  that  our  doing  right  or 
wrong  is  an  open  question,  is  to  be  over- 
thrown. True  triumph  morally  must  be 
based  upon  a  decision,  absolute,  irrevocable, 
' '  I  will  do  right  tho  the  heavens  fall. ' '  When 
a  man  or  woman  of  real  character  makes  a 
decision  like  that,  there  is  no  more  parley- 
ing. The  question  is  not  open  for  dis- 
cussion. And,  depend  upon  it,  as  long  as 
it  is  open  for  discussion,  your  soul  is  in 
deadly  danger  of  overthrow  and  destruc- 
tion. 

n 

We  are  living  in  a  time  when  all  this  is 
of  peculiar  significance.  Everything  is 
questioned  to-day.  There  is  nothing  that 
men  dare  not  call  in  question.  There  is 
nothing  so  sacred  that  it  can  escape  chal- 
lenge, and  men  and  women  are  being  ruined 
in  multitudes  because,  like  the  little  girl  in 


PABLEYING  WITH  TEMPTATION  235 

Dr.  Waters 's  story,  they  can  not  stand  being 
dared  or  challenged  to  experiment  with  evil. 
It  is  a  time  when  men  and  women  seem 
reckless  in  trying  to  see  how  near  they  can 
come  to  the  precipice  of  eternal  disaster 
and  yet  escape  with  a  whole  character.  But 
it  is  as  true  to-day  as  it  was  in  the  days 
of  Eve  that  to  parley  with  temptation  is 
to  take  the  risk  of  ruin.  A  famous  chemist 
recently  said  that  cyanid  of  potassium  is 
the  most  dangerous  of  all  poisons  because 
of  a  singular  quality  it  possesses.  It  is  in 
appearance  so  very  attractive  to  those  who 
handle  it  that  they  are  often  seized  with  an 
almost  overwhelming  desire  to  eat  it.  To 
one  man  who  has  a  fondness  for  saccharin 
substance,  it  suggests  sugar;  and  to  another, 
snow  newly  fallen;  but  to  both  it  is  so  al- 
luring that  they  may  only  overcome  the 
temptation  to  put  it  in  their  mouths  by 
great  force  of  will  power.  The  very  men 
who  make  it,  and  who  are  most  familiar  with 
its  deadly  properties,  are  pursued  by  an 
unreasonable  desire  to  eat  the  poison,  and  as 
long  as  they  remain  in  its  vicinity  this  ex- 
traordinary craving  endures.  They  know 
that  to  give  way  to  the  craving  means  death 


236  TEE  WOELD'S  CHILDHOOD 

almost  instantly  and  horribly,  and  as  a  con- 
sequence are  usually  able  to  resist  the 
strange  temptation,  but  during  the  last  ten 
years,  in  one  large  manufacturing  chemist's 
laboratory,  four  intelligent  and  steady  work- 
men have  committed  suicide  in  that  way. 
The  owner  of  the  plant  recently  said  that 
many  times  when  in  contact  with  the  cyanid 
fumes,  he  himself  had  been  compelled  to 
leave  the  work  precipitately  for  fear  of 
yielding  to  the  deadly  temptation.  What  a 
graphic  illustration  of  the  deadly  power 
which  sin  exercises  over  the  human  imagina- 
tion and  heart.  It  also  suggests  the  wisdom 
of  keeping  out  of  temptation  as  much  as 
possible.  It  is  great  folly  for  men  and 
women  to  thrust  themselves  where  they 
know  the  dangerous  fascination  of  their 
besetting  sin  will  be  felt. 


Ill 


After  all  is  said,  certain  safety  is  only  to 
be  found  in  the  active  exercise  of  ourselves 
in  doing  that  which  is  right  and  true  and 
good.     Eve's  folly  began  in  settling  down 


PABLEYING  WITH  TEMPTATION  237 

to  gaze  on  the  forbidden  fruit.  If  she  had 
been  going  about  her  work  with  a  song  of 
praise  to  the  God  who  had  created  this 
beautiful  garden  for  her  gladness,  or  with 
thoughts  of  how  she  might  make  it  still 
more  beautiful  by  her  loving  service,  Satan 
would  have  had  no  chance  at  her.  Christmas 
Evans,  one  of  the  quaint  old  preachers,  in 
one  of  his  sermons  gives  a  parable,  telling 
how  the  devil  once  went  out  determined  to 
do  a  mighty  business.  He  came  upon  a 
plowboy  working  in  the  field,  and  he  said 
to  himself,  **I  will  tempt  the  boy  to  rob  his 
master;  then  he  will  get  into  prison;  'twill 
bring  him  into  bad  company,  so  that  he  will 
get  worse  and  be  transported,  and  ulti- 
mately get  to  the  gallows,  and  I  shall  have 
his  soul  forever.''  The  devil  strode  across 
the  moor  and,  as  he  approached  the  plow- 
boy,  he  heard  him  singing : 

My  God,  the  spring  of  all  my  joys, 

The  life  of  my  delights, 
The  glory  of  my  brightest  days, 

And  comfort  of  my  nights. 

**Ah!"  said  the  devil,  ^^he  won't  answer 
my  purpose,"  and  off  he  went.     So,  flying 


238  TEE  WORLD'S  CHILDHOOD 

over  hill  and  dale,  he  came  to  a  quiet  nook 
in  a  valley  between  two  high  mountains 
where  there  was  a  sweet  little  cottage  over- 
grown with  ivy,  with  its  porch  covered  with 
flowers.  Beneath  the  porch  a  maiden  sat, 
knitting.  Said  he,  ''I  will  entice  her  away 
to  the  big  town  and  lead  her  into  ways  of 
folly  and  sin  and  shame.  She  shall  perish 
in  an  infirmary,  and  her  soul  shall  be  mine 
forever."  He  drew  near  to  whisper  in 
her  ear  some  temptation,  but  he  heard  her 
singing : 

Jesus,  I  love  thy  charming  name, 

'Tis  music  to  mine  ear; 
Fain  would  I  sound  it  out  so  loud 

That  earth  and  heaven  should  hear. 

**That  won^t  answer,''  said  he,  and  so  he 
flew  away  until  he  came  to  where  an  old  man 
named  Williams  lived,  and  as  he  drew  near 
he  said,  ''Here  old  Williams  lives.  He  has 
served  God  these  fifty  years,  and  if  I  can 
get  him  now  what  a  trophy  that  would  be ! ' ' 
So  he  went  in  and  passed  up-stairs  where 
Williams  lay  dying.  ''Now,''  said  he,  "I 
will  make  him  doubt  and  die  in  despair." 


PABLEYING  WITH  TEMPTATION  239 

Satan  crossed  the  room  to  get  at  the  dying 
man^s  ear,  and  as  he  came  close  to  him, 
Williams  stretched  out  his  hand  and  said, 
*^Yea,  tho  I  walk  through  the  valley  of  the 
shadow  of  death,  I  will  fear  no  evil ;  for  thou 
art  with  me,  thy  rod  and  thy  staff  they  com- 
fort me."  Satan  shrank  back  abashed  into 
the  darkness.  And  so  he  would  always  if  he 
found  our  hearts  and  our  thoughts  taken  up 
with  doing  our  duty.  It  is  the  earnest, 
active  soul,  that  is  positively  doing  right,  who 
is  beyond  the  reach  of  Satan.  Paul  sums  it 
all  up  in  his  word  to  the  Galatians:  **Walk 
in  the  Spirit  and  ye  shall  not  fulfil  the 
lusts  of  the  flesh." 


THE  FIEST  LIE 

''The  serpent  said  unto  the  woman,  Ye  shall  not 
surely  die. ' ' — Gen.  3 :  4. 

WE  have  here  the  first  record  of  a  lie. 
Satan  has  been  making  suggestions 
and  sneers  to  Eve,  but  up  to  this  time  he 
has  not  dared  to  openly  attack  God.  If 
Eve  had  held  firm  to  her  loyalty  and  refused 
to  open  the  door  of  her  mind  and  heart  to 
the  suggestions  of  the  evil  one,  she  would 
have  been  guiltless  and  Satan  never  could 
have  made  an  entrance  into  her  heart.  She 
held  the  key  in  her  own  hand,  and  if  she 
had  not  opened  her  heart  to  the  insinuations 
of  Satan,  she  would  have  held  safely  the 
gold  of  her  character. 

Many  years  ago  a  band  of  Apache  Indians 
captured  the  army  paymaster's  safe  out 
in  the  Western  mountains.  The  safe  con- 
tained about  seven  thousand  dollars  in  gold. 
It  weighed  four  hundred  pounds  and  worked 
with  a  combination.  None  of  the  Indians 
had   ever  examined  one   at  close  quarters 

240 


THE  FIRST  LIE  241 

before,  but  they  all  knew  why  it  was  hauled 
about  from  post  to  post  and  were  very 
anxious  to  get  hold  of  the  money.  They 
first  pounded  off  the  knob  with  stones,  think- 
ing the  door  would  then  fly  open.  When  that 
failed,  they  tried  their  tomahawks  on  the 
chilled  steel,  hoping  to  cut  a  hole  in  it. 
After  they  had  worn  their  tomahawks  out  in 
that  effort,  some  of  them  remembered  that 
they  had  seen  iron  softened  by  fire,  and  their 
next  move  was  to  give  that  safe  a  roasting 
of  many  hours;  but  it  proved  to  be  fire- 
proof. They  threw  big  rocks  upon  it  while 
it  was  still  hot,  and  dented  it  till  it  looked 
as  if  it  had  been  through  the  war,  but  tl^ey 
were  as  far  from  the  money  as  ever.  Then 
they  dragged  it  up  the  side  of  the  mountain 
and  tumbled  it  over  a  precipice  several 
hundred  feet  high.  They  expected  that  when 
it  lighted  on  the  rocks  beneath  it  would 
burst  open  like  a  watermelon,  but  the  only 
damage  done  was  to  break  off  one  of  the 
wheels  underneath.  They  left  it  lying  there 
where  it  fell  for  a  while,  and  then  came 
back  and  carried  it  to  the  river  and  left 
it  to  soak  for  a  week.  It  was  thought  that 
this  would  soften  it  up,  and  great  was  their 


242  TEE  WOBLD'S  CHILDHOOD 

chagrin  to  find  it  as  hard  as  ever.  They 
knew  that  white  men  sometimes  tore  things 
open  with  gunpowder,  so  they  set  to  work 
to  blast  the  safe  open,  and  not  knowing 
how  to  do  it,  they  spoiled  a  half-a-dozen 
Indians  and  did  no  damage  to  the  safe. 
Thus  for  a  month  the  Indians  worked  at 
that  safe  harder  than  they  had  ever  worked 
at  anything  else  in  all  their  lives,  but  they 
failed  to  get  inside  of  it,  and  finally  tumbled 
it  into  a  deep  ravine  and  left  it.  A  year  or 
two  later,  after  peace  was  made,  the  govern- 
ment got  on  the  track  of  the  safe,  and  an 
ambulance  and  a  guard  were  sent  for  it.  It 
was  found  lying  in  the  bed  of  the  creek  with 
a  pile  of  driftwood  around  it.  It  was  a 
rusty,  dented,  lonesome-looking  old  safe.  I 
suppose  there  never  was  a  worse  looking 
safe  so  far  as  outside  appearances  are  con- 
cerned. But  when  it  was  brought  into  the 
fort  and  the  door  was  opened  it  yielded  up 
its  contents  without  the  loss  of  a  dollar. 
True,  genuine  character,  that  stubbornly 
maintains  its  loyalty  to  God  in  simple 
obedience,  is  like  that.  You  may  thrust  it 
into  the  den  of  lions  with  Daniel;  you  may 
put  it  into  the  fiery  furnace  with  the  Hebrew 


TBE  FIRST  LIE  243 

worthies ;  you  may  put  it  into  the  stocks  with 
Paul  and  Silas,  or  into  the  prison  with  John 
Bunyan,  and  it  will  come  out  with  all  its 
treasures  safe  and  secure.  Wise,  indeed, 
was  Solomon,  when  he  advised,  ^^Keep  thy 
heart  with  all  diligence,  for  out  of  it  are 
the  issues  of  life."  It  was  because  Eve 
left  the  doors  of  her  heart  ajar  and  gave 
entrance  to  the  suggestions  of  the  evil  one 
that  Satan  triumphed. 


If  Satan  had  approached  Eve  at  first  with 
the  rude  and  direct  declaration  that  her  God 
was  a  liar,  he  would  have  lost  his  case  and 
she  would  have  turned  from  him  in  disgust. 
But  after  she  had  listened  to  his  suggestions 
and  began  to  argue  and  debate  with  him, 
a  subtle  change  took  place.  She  had  pre- 
pared her  heart  by  parleying  with  the 
tempter  to  hear  his  lie  about  God  without 
being  shocked.  At  first  he  is  fairly  reverent 
in  his  references  to  God,  in  his  conversa- 
tion with  Eve,  but  now  the  mask  of  rever- 
ence is  thrown  aside.    The  doubts  which  he 


244  THE  WORLD  *S  CHILDHOOD 

has  aroused  in  her  mind  having  done  their 
work,  he  does  not  need  longer  to  pretend 
to  regard  God^s  word.  He  now  openly  con- 
tradicts God  and  charges  God  with  petty 
jealousy  and  ignoble  fear  lest  man  attain 
equality  with  him.  And  to  Satan  *s  bold 
denial  of  the  truth  of  God's  word  Eve  at- 
tempts no  reply,  and  an  ominous  silence 
ensues.  We  may  wonder  that  she,  so  re- 
cently perfect  from  the  hand  of  her  Creator, 
could  bring  herself  to  listen  without  even 
a  word  of  j)rotest  to  the  blasphemy  of 
Satan.  But  the  explanation  is  th^t  her  par- 
leying with  the  tempter  has  resulted  in  the 
drugging  of  her  conscience  so  that  that 
which  would  have  seemed  horrible  to  her 
at  first  she  now  receives  without  a  shock. 
Who  of  us  has  not  known  some  evolution 
of  sin  like  that?  Be  careful  lest  the  con- 
science be  drugged.  For  Satan  attempts  our 
overthrow  in  the  same  way.  The  form  may 
vary  with  the  individual,  from  a  refined 
worldliness  in  one  case  to  a  vulgar  sensuality 
in  another ;  but  in  whatever  form  temptation 
comes  to  us,  there  are  always  these  two 
ways  of  dealing  with  it,  to  turn  from  it  with 
scorn,  confidently  affirming  our  trust  in  God 


TEE  FIBST  LIE  245 

and  our  allegiance  to  Him,  as  did  Jesus 
Christ,  or  to  stand  and  parley  and  debate 
with  the  enemy,  as  did  Eve.  One  method 
leads  to  the  comfort  of  angels  and  the 
triumph  of  the  spirit  and  the  other  to  sorrow 
and  death.  For  ^  ^  the  wages  of  sin  is  death, ' ' 
to-day  as  surely  as  in  the  days  of  Eve.  The 
devil  says  to  men  to-day  when  they  are 
tempted  to  sin,  **Ye  shall  not  surely  die," 
but  he  is  lying  to  us  as  he  did  to  Eve.  For 
Eve  did  die,  as  to  her  soul,  at  once;  as  to 
her  body,  after  she  was  driven  forth  from 
Eden;  and  her  knowledge  of  good  and  evil 
made  her  not  a  god,  but  a  sinner.  The 
promises  which  the  enemy  of  our  souls  holds 
out  to  men  to-day  are  no  better.  Satan 
baits  his  trap  with  hopes  of  liberty,  happi- 
ness and  final  truth,  and  when  the  trap  has 
fallen  and  the  soul  is  ensnared,  it  finds  it 
has  been  the  victim  of  the  falsehoods  of  the 
evil  one. 


II 

'We  may  be  sure  from  this  study  that  any- 
body who  promises  us  more  than  God  does 
is  trying  to  deceive  us.     God  had  warned 


246  THE  WOELD'S  CHILDHOOD 

Eve  that  to  taste  the  forbidden  fruit  meant 
death,  but  Satan  tells  her  that  it  will  mean 
the  open  eye  and  the  alert  mind  and  a 
personality  like  a  god.  If  we  are  to  credit 
the  annals  of  the  Eussian  Empire,  there 
once  existed  a  noble  order  of  merit,  which 
was  greatly  coveted  by  the  nobility  of  the 
Eussian  Court.  It  was,  however,  conferred 
only  on  the  peculiar  favorites  of  the  Czar, 
or  on  the  distinguished  heroes  of  the  king- 
dom. But  another  class  shared  in  its  honor 
in  a  very  questionable  form.  Those  nobles 
or  favorites  who  either  became  a  burden 
to  the  Czar  or  who  stood  in  his  way,  received 
this  decoration  only  to  die.  The  pin-point 
was  tipped  with  poison,  and  when  the  order 
was  being  fastened  on  the  breast  by  the 
imperial  messenger,  the  flesh  of  the  person 
was  ** accidentally"  pricked.  Death  ensued, 
as  next  morning  the  individual  who  had  been 
so  highly  honored  with  imperial  favor  was 
found  dead  in  bed  from  apoplexy.  So  Satan 
offered  to  confer  a  brilliant  decoration,  god- 
like in  its  nobility,  on  Eve  and  her  husband, 
but  it  was  a  poisoned  pin-prick,  and  she 
knew  too  late  that  **The  wages  of  sin  is 
death.'' 


TEE  FIRST  LIE  247 

Satan  is  always  appearing  to  men  and 
women  in  some  beautiful  and  charming 
guise  appealing  peculiarly  to  their  situa- 
tion, and  it  is  not  until  too  late  that  the 
mask  is  thrown  off  and  we  learn  that  any- 
one who  by  any  promise  lures  us  from  obedi- 
ence to  God  is  to  us  the  very  devil.  Bates, 
the  naturalist,  found  on  the  Amazon  a  bril- 
liant spider  that  spread  itself  out  as  a  flower. 
It  was  most  attractive  to  insects,  promising 
as  it  did  a  rich  pasture-ground  for  food.  But 
when  they  lighted  on  it,  seeking  sweetness, 
they  found  horror,  torment,  death.  Such 
transformations  are  common  in  human  life. 
Things  of  poison  and  blood  are  everywhere 
displaying  themselves  in  forms  of  inno- 
cence, in  dyes  of  beauty.  *^The  perfection 
of  mimicry,''  Watkinson  says,  *4s  in  the 
moral  world,  deceiving  the  very  elect." 
Satan  is  transformed  into  an  angel  of  light; 
his  blasted  brow  is  disguised  by  a  wreath, 
his  fiery  darts  seem  glittering  scepters,  the 
smoke  of  his  torment  goes  up  as  incense. 
The  same  preacher  recalls  that  another 
celebrated  naturalist  one  day  saw  a  bird 
drowning  in  a  lake,  and  he  felt  sure  that 
the  bird  had  mistaken  the  water  for   the 


248  tb:e  would 's  childhood 

sky.  It  was  a  bright,  transparent  day,  the 
clear,  calm  lake  reflected  the  sky  and  the 
whole  landscape  in  its  depths,  and  the  bird, 
not  discerning  that  the  world  below  it  was 
a  world  of  shadows,  was  betrayed  to  its 
doom.  So  all  the  glories  of  the  upper  world 
appear  inverted  in  the  world  of  evil.  The 
lofty,  the  pure,  the  beautiful,  the  bright,  are 
all  seductively  reflected  in  the  depths  of 
Satan;  they  are  exaggerated  there,  they  are 
seen  in  surpassing  magnitude  and  splendor; 
error  seems  some  nobler  truth,  disobedience 
some  larger  liberty,  forbidden  things  seem 
the  sweetest  flowers  and  the  mellowest  fruit 
of  Paradise. 

Ill 

Eve  learned,  and  we  ought  to  learn  from 
our  theme  in  the  study  of  her  example,  that 
the  size  of  the  bait  does  not  excuse  the 
folly  of  yielding  to  sin.  It  was  the  dazzling 
bait  of  becoming  wise  and  associating  with 
lofty  personalities  which  deceived  Eve  and 
seemed  to  make  the  risk  worth  while.  So 
men  and  women  now  are  led  to  their  ruin. 
A  man  who   ordinarily  tells   the  truth  is 


THE  FIBST  LIE  249 

ready  to  excuse  the  man  for  lying  if  he 
may  win  a  fortune  by  it.  A  woman  who 
has  meant  to  be  true  and  good  is  ready  to 
parley  with  the  tempter  if  thereby  she  may 
climb  high  in  social  splendor.  The  sin  that 
would  be  condemned  at  once  where  the  stake 
is  small  and  there  is  little  to  be  gained  by 
it,  seems  to  the  drugged  and  bewildered  soul 
to  be  a  venial  offense  if  it  is  to  bring  great 
material  success.  Ah,  such  sophistries  are 
only  the  delusion  of  the  evil  one.  There 
is  an  historical  story  of  the  Duchess  Isa- 
bella who,  wishing  earnestly  to  obtain  some 
object,  was  instructed  by  the  crafty  court 
astrologer  to  kiss  day  by  day  for  a  hundred 
days  a  certain  beautiful  picture  and  she 
would  receive  her  wish.  It  was  a  sinister 
trick,  for  the  picture  contained  a  subtle 
poison  which  stained  the  lips  with  every 
salutation.  Little  by  little  the  golden  tresses 
of  the  queenly  woman  turned  white,  her 
eyes  became  dim,  her  color  faded,  her  lips 
became  black;  but,  infatuated,  the  suicidal 
kiss  was  continued,  until  before  the  hundred 
days  were  complete  the  royal  dupe  lay  dead. 
Alas!  how  many  such  cases  we  see  to-day 
of  men  and  women  who  are  bent  on  some 


250  THE  WORLD'S  CHILDHOOD 

worldly  triumpli,  upon  obtaining  some  ma- 
terial success,  and  are  willing  to  have  it 
at  any  cost  to  their  better  natures.  We  see 
men  and  women  who  kiss  day  by  day  the 
goddess  of  worldliness,  and  tho  there  is 
poison  in  every  salutation,  and  they  are 
losing  before  our  very  eyes  all  that  which 
makes  men  and  women  noblest  and  most 
worthy,  still  they  press  on  and  pay  their 
devotion  to  their  worldly  god  while  the  heart 
hardens,  and  the  conscience  loses  its  power 
to  warn,  and  the  soul  languishes  and  dies 
even  before  the  body  has  begun  to  decay. 


THE  LOST  PARADISE 

"She   took   of    the    fruit    thereof   and    did   eat." — 
Gen.  3:6. 

YES,  that  is  what  she  did;  but  the  evolu- 
tion that  went  on  before  that  is  the 
interesting  and  important  theme  for  our  con- 
sideration. She  would  not  have  disobeyed 
God's  law  and  bidden  defiance  to  her  Creator 
offhand.  Something  else  had  been  going 
on.  As  you  read  the  story  you  see  the  com- 
mon and  ordinary  evolution  of  sin.  I  think 
it  will  be  interesting  and,  I  trust,  helpful 
for  us  to  examine  this  evolution,  for  some- 
thing like  it  goes  on  every  time  any  man  or 
woman  gives  way  to  sin  against  God.  Briefly 
note  the  stages  of  this  evolution! 


It  began  with  listening  to  the  devil.  When 
Satan  first  drew  near  to  Eve,  clothed  with 
the  skin  of  the  serpent,  he  began  his  attack 
upon  her  by  insinuating  that,  after  all,  God 

251 


252  THE  WORLD'S  CHILDHOOD 

was  not  really  good  to  His  children.  **Can 
it  be  possible,"  says  that  smooth,  insinua- 
ting voice,  in  substance,  and  I  imagine  with 
a  sardonic  smile,  '^that  your  God  has  shut 
off  a  part  of  the  garden  from  you  and 
forbidden  you  to  eat  of  some  of  the  trees 
of  the  garden!'^  Now,  if  Eve  had  gone  her 
way  and  let  Satan  go  his,  she  would  have 
been  safe.  If,  instead  of  listening  to  the 
insinuations  against  the  goodness  of  God, 
she  had  recalled  the  bountiful  provision  and 
loving  care  which  God  had  made  and  ex- 
ercised in  preparing  this  beautiful  garden 
with  all  necessary  food  and  with  abounding 
beauty,  instead  of  having  mischievous  and 
dangerous  doubts  born  in  her  soul,  her 
heart  would  have  overflowed  with  gratitude, 
and  she  would  have  gone  her  way  singing 
her  thanksgiving  among  the  fragrant  trees 
of  God\s  garden.  But,  alas!  she  listened. 
And  there  is  where  we  all  get  into  trouble. 
We  can  not  help  being  tempted.  Jesus 
Christ,  who  was  without  spot  or  blemish  of 
any  kind;  whose  heart  and  whose  thoughts 
were  pure  and  clean,  was  tempted ;  severely, 
terribly  tempted.  But  He  did  not  listen  to 
the   enemy.     At  every  temptation  He  met 


TEE  LOST  PARADISE  253 

Satan  with  the  Word  of  God,  and  came  out 
of  His  forty  days  of  temptation  in  the 
wilderness  as  spotless  as  when  He  entered 
it.  It  is  in  listening  to  the  evil  one  that 
the  danger  begins. 

A  little  boy  ten  years  old  a  while  ago 
found  in  a  gutter  in  New  York  City  a 
beautiful  diamond  ring  worth  four  thousand 
dollars.  He  was  the  son  of  poor  people 
to  whom  only  one  dollar  would  be  a  mat- 
ter of  importance.  But  he  had  had  clean, 
wholesome  Christian  training.  He  did  not 
play  with  the  ring,  nor  take  it  home,  nor 
wish  he  could  keep  it,  nor  in  any  way  parley 
with  the  temptation.  Straight  as  a  die 
he  went  to  the  police  station  and  told  the 
police  sergeant  all  about  it,  and  just  where 
and  how  he  found  it.  The  owner,  a  wealthy 
woman,  was  soon  found,  and  has  exprest 
her  purpose  to  see  that  that  boy  has  a 
good  education.  Now  it  is  easy  to  see 
how,  if  that  boy  had  given  way  to  evil  long- 
ings about  that  ring,  it  might  have  been 
the  beginning  of  his  ruin,  and  transformed 
him  into  a  criminal;  but  as  it  was,  he  was 
tremendously  strengthened  in  righteousness 
by  that  one  straightforward  deed. 


254  TUE  WOULD 'S  CHILDSOOD 

II 

The  next  stage  of  the  evolution  after  the 
listening  was  the  seeing.  After  she  had 
listened  to  the  evil  one  she  began  to  study  the 
tree  that  was  forbidden.  The  record  says, 
*^And  when  the  woman  saw  that  the  tree  was 
good  for  food,  and  that  it  was  pleasant  to 
the  eye."  There  is  the  second  stage  of  the 
evolution.  Eve  let  her  eyes  linger  lovingly 
about  the  fruit  that  she  knew  she  had  no 
right  to  touch.  Be  careful  what  you  see. 
Be  careful  what  you  go  on  purpose  to  see, 
knowing  that  it  will  not  have  a  tendency  to 
make  you  a  better  man  or  a  nobler  woman. 
The  perilous  thing  about  much  of  the  theatri- 
cal presentation  of  our  time  is  that  its  atmos- 
phere and  spirit  and  the  suggestion  which 
it  gives  to  the  young  mind  are  often  such 
as  to  take  the  bloom  off  innocence,  and 
makes  it  possible  for  men  and  women  to  pic- 
ture to  themselves  vicious  and  evil  things 
without  being  shocked.  A  thing  does  not 
have  to  be  broken  all  to  pieces  in  order  to 
lose  its  beauty  and  usefulness.  Henry  Ward 
Beecher  once  said  that  he  liked  beautiful 
china  cups,  but  he  had  noticed  that  when  a 


TEE  LOST  PABADiSE  25S 

handle  got  knocked  off  from  one  of  his 
cups,  that  cup  was  spoiled  for  him.  And 
that,  if  he  had  a  beautiful  mirror  and  it 
was  cracked,  it  was  spoiled  for  his  eye;  its 
perfectness  was  gone.  There  are  many 
things  in  these  great  cities  which  men  and 
women  can  not  see  without  being  damaged. 
As  an  eel,  if  he  were  to  wriggle  across  your 
carpet,  would  leave  a  slime  which  no  brush 
could  take  off,  so  there  are  many  things 
which  no  person  can  behold  and  ever  re- 
cover from  the  sight.  Parents  sometimes 
talk  about  giving  their  children,  especially 
their  boys,  freedom  in  which  to  see  life,  as 
it  is  said.  One  might  as  well  bring  up  a 
child  by  cutting  some  of  the  cords  in  his 
body  and  lacerating  his  nerves,  and  scarring 
and  tattooing  him,  as  an  element  of  beauty, 
as  to  think  of  developing  true  manhood  or 
womanhood  by  bringing  youth  up  to  see 
life — to  see  its  abominable  lusts ;  to  listen  to 
its  hideous  incarnations  of  wit;  to  see  its 
infernal  wickedness;  to  see  its  extravagant 
and  degrading  scenes;  to  see  its  miserable 
carnalities ;  to  see  its  imaginations  set  on  fire 
of  hell;  to  see  all  those  temptations  and  de- 
lusions  which   lead   to   perdition.     Nobody 


256  THE  WOBLD'S  CHILDHOOD 

gets  over  the  sight  of  these  things.  And  to 
get  yourself  accustomed  to  sights  and  sounds 
that  sneer  at  God,  and  the  Bible,  and  make 
a  joke  of  Sabbath  and  the  Church,  is  to  get 
yourself  ready  with  Eve  to  forfeit  Paradise. 


Ill 


The  next  step  was  the  play  of  Eve's 
imagination.  First,  she  listened  to  the  in- 
sinuations of  evil;  then  she  looked  at  the 
fruit  until  it  was  pleasant  and  beautiful  to 
the  eyes;  and  then  she  began  to  dream  of 
becoming  wise  and  brilliant  until  she  should 
be  like  the  gods.  Take  care  what  you  dream 
about  when  you  are  alone.  It  is  the  theme 
of  the  secret  imagination  that  has  more 
really  to  do  with  our  outward  conduct  in 
the  end  than  anything  else.  Thomas  a 
Kempis,  in  his  famous  description  of  the 
successive  steps  of  a  successful  temptation, 
says  that  first,  there  is  the  bare  thought  of 
the  sin.  Then,  upon  that,  there  is  a  picture 
of  the  sin  formed  and  hung  up  on  the  secret 
screen  of  the  imagination.  A  strange  sweet- 
ness from  that  picture  is  then  let  down  drop 


THE  LOST  PABADISE  257 

by  drop  into  the  heart;  and  then  that  secret 
sweetness  soon  secures  the  consent  of  the 
whole  soul,  and  the  thing  is  done.  That  is  a 
graphic  and  powerful  description,  but  it  is 
as  true  as  it  is  picturesque  and  strong. 

The  Japanese  have  a  proverb  that  a  snake 
is  quite  orderly  and  straight  so  long  as  you 
keep  it  in  a  bamboo  stick,  but  the  moment 
it  gets  out  it  begins  to  wriggle  and  act  snaky. 
My  friend,  be  careful  how  you  turn  an  im- 
pure thought,  an  evil  suggestion,  loose  in 
your  imagination  to  wriggle  and  squirm 
itself  through  all  your  thinking  and  dream- 
ing until  it  has  made  itself  at  home  there. 
A  temptation  to  yield  to  that  thing  finds  all 
your  walls  of  resistance  broken  down. 

A  young  boy  of  seventeen,  who  worked  in 
a  carpenter  shop,  was  sent  out  in  one  of 
our  cities  to  take  the  measure  for  a  new 
counter  in  a  saloon.  It  was  very  cold 
weather.  The  saloon-keeper  mixed  up  a 
hot  drink  and  pushed  it  over  the  counter 
to  him.  *^It'll  cost  you  nothing,'*  he  said; 
** drink  it  down,  and  you'll  soon  stop  shiver- 
ing, my  boy.''  *^He  meant  it  kindly,  too, 
and  didn't  think  any  harm,"  said  the  boy, 
telling  about  it  afterward.     ^* That's  what 


258  TSB  WOBLD'3  CHILDHOOD 

made  it  harder  to  push  it  back  and  say  I 
didn't  want  it/'  *^It  must  have  been  a 
big  temptation/'  said  the  friend  to  whom 
the  boy  was  talking.  ^^That  saloon-keeper 
might  have  started  you  on  the  road  to  ruin." 
*^Well,"  replied  the  young  carpenter, 
frankly,  ^'I'd  rather  have  had  it  than  some 
other  kinds.  You  see,  it  takes  two  to  make 
a  temptation.  There  is  no  saloon-keeper  and 
no  cold  weather  can  make  me  drink  when  1 
don't  want  to.  The  temptation  I'm  afraid  of 
is  the  one  that  I  am  ready  for  before  it 
comes,  by  hankering  after  it."  That  was  a 
shrewd  boy,  and  nothing  could  be  truer  than 
that  diagnosis  of  temptation.  Be  careful 
that  the  substance  of  your  dreams  and  long- 
ings are  such  as  make  for  a  wholesome  per- 
sonality. 

IV 

Then  she  took  the  fruit  and  ate  it.  There 
is  the  fourth  stage  in  the  evolution  of  the 
loss  of  Paradise.  Eemember,  in  all  this, 
that  Satan  could  have  had  no  power  to 
entice  Eve  to  disobey  God  if  she  had  not 
listened,  and  let  her  eyes  play  on  the  for- 


TEE  LOST  PABADISE  259 

bidden  fruit,  and  dreamed  and  imagined 
happy  results  from  her  disobedience.  St. 
James,  speaking  of  temptation,  says,  ^' Every 
man  is  tempted  when  he  is  drawn  away  of 
his  own  lust  and  enticed."  Dr.  Arnot,  com- 
menting on  that  sentence,  says  it  means 
literally  *^ drawn  out  and  hooked.''  The 
first  expression  does  not  yet  mean  drawn 
by  the  hook;  it  means  rather  drawn  to  the 
hook.  The  first  is  a  drawing  toward  the 
hook  and  the  second  is  a  dragging  by  the 
hook.  If  you  have  ever  watched  a  skilful 
angler  fishing,  you  have  noted  that  no  noise 
is  made  and  no  danger  permitted  to  meet 
the  eye  of  the  victim.  By  some  enticing 
lure  the  fish  is  drawn  from  his  safe  hiding- 
place  in  the  brook  or  river  or  lake.  The 
victim,  not  perceiving  the  danger,  is  by  its 
own  *4ust" — its  own  appetite — drawn  to  its 
doom.  The  next  part  of  the  process  is  the 
act  of  fixing  the  barbed  hook  in  the  victim's 
jaws.  When  the  fish  has  been  enticed  by  the 
bait  to  swallow  the  hook  then  there  is 
another  drawing ;  but  how  different  from  the 
first!  The  fisherman  does  not  now  hide 
himself,  and  tread  softly  and  speak  in  a 
whisper.    There  is  no  more  gentleness.    He 


260  TEE  WOULD* S  CHILDHOOD 

rudely  drags  his  helpless  prey  to  the  shore 
and  takes  his  life.  I  have  often  seen  it 
like  that  in  the  devil's  hooking  of  human 
souls.  Perhaps  some  of  you  even  now  are 
following  the  bait  that  is  drawing  you  away 
from  safety  into  waters  that  you  know  to  be 
perilous. 

Now,  the  best,  and  indeed  the  only,  pre- 
ventive against  these  baited  hooks  of  evil,  is 
to  be  fed  to  satisfaction  with  a  sweetness  in 
which  there  is  no  sin  and  no  danger.  It  is 
the  human  soul  that  is  empty,  that  is  not 
satisfied  with  the  peace  of  God,  that  is 
easily  drawn  into  the  pleasures  of  sin. 
It  is  not  by  living  a  negative  life,  simply 
standing  on  guard  against  the  approach  of 
evil,  that  we  can  insure  our  safety.  It  is 
the  living  positively  a  deep  and  earnest  life 
of  good  deeds,  following  on  noble  purposes, 
that  makes  us  secure.  No  man  is  safe 
from  moral  overthrow  who  lives  a  life  on 
the  surface — a  haphazard  life  from  day  to 
day.  But  it  is  possible  for  us  to  live  a 
deep,  earnest,  spiritual  life  that  will  be  rich 
enough  to  so  satisfy  us  that  the  devil's 
insinuations  against  God  will  wake  no  doubt 
in  our  minds.     Eecent  experiments  in  re- 


THE  LOST  PARADISE  261 

claiming  the  great  deserts  have  called  at- 
tention to  the  fact  that  below  the  earth's 
surface  there  is  a  vast  and  seemingly  in- 
exhaustible supply  of  water  whose  existence 
we  little  suspect  until  we  begin  to  tap  these 
hidden  sources.  Something  like  that  exists 
in  the  soul.  As  our  nature  deepens  through 
worship  and  service  and  honest  doing  of 
duty,  we  discover  ever  new  sources  of 
spiritual  supply,  ever  new  and  hidden 
springs  by  which  the  higher  nature  is 
nourished.  This  is  the  true  source  of  the 
peace  and  security  of  a  human  soul.  Give 
yourself  up  in  genuineness  and  sincerity  to 
do  God's  will  and  you  will  have  reached  the 
secret  springs  of  religious  life  and  health. 
It  will  be  to  you  the  most  beautiful  of  all 
miracles,  the  conscious  communion  with  God, 
a  joyous  divineness  filling  earth  and  heaven 
— a  heightened  blush  upon  the  rose,  a 
lovelier  glow  in  the  evening  sky,  a  richer 
zest  for  the  perfect,  the  good,  the  pure  of 
heart.  To  have  this  hidden  resource  of 
joy  in  God  and  in  His  constant  presence  in 
the  soul  is  like  the  gushing  of  a  clear,  sweet 
fountain  in  desert  places,  the  secret  source 
of     happiness,     the     banisher     of     gloom, 


262  THE  WORLD'S  CHILDHOOD 

suspicion,  jealousy,  fear,  and  distrust.  If 
we  have  the  secret  understanding  of  what 
God  means  for  us — that  we  are  His  dear 
children,  His  helpers  and  coworkers  in 
His  great  purpose  of  making  the  world 
happier  and  better — fears  vanish  like  morn- 
ing mist,  anxieties  disappear;  for,  as  some 
one  has  said,  all  God's  dice  are  loaded  and 
we  are  sure,  if  we  are  on  His  side,  to  win 
in  the  game.  Life  is  worth  living  when 
you  can  live  like  that,  and  we  can  catch  the 
heart-throb  of  a  man  like  Maltbie  Babcock 
when  he  sings : 

Be  strong! 
We  are  not  here  to  play,  to  dream,  to  drift, 
We  have  hard  work  to  do,  and  loads  to  lift. 
Shun   not   the   struggle,   face  it,    'tis   God's   gift. 

Be  strong! 

Be  strong ! 
Say  not  the  days  are  evil — who's  to  blame? 
And   fold   the   hands   and   acquiesce — 0   shame! 
Stand  up,  speak  out,  and  bravely,  in  God's  name, 

Be  strong! 

Be  strong! 

It  matters  not  how  deep  intrenched  the  wrong. 

How   hard   the   battle   goes,   the   day,   how   long; 

Faint  not,  fight  on!     To-morrow  comes  the  song. 

Be  strong! 


THE   SINNER   BECOMES  THE 
TEMPTER 

''She  gave  unto  her  husband  with  her,  and  he  did 
eat. '  * — Genesis  3:6. 

SOMEWHERE  out  in  the  Atlantic  Ocean 
there  is  a  steamer  whose  crew  is  eagerly- 
feeling  on  the  far-off  ocean  bed,  trying  to 
hook  up  the  broken  end  of  a  deep-sea  cable. 
Already  the  steamer  has  had  to  come  back 
to  port  for  more  coal  and  supplies  and 
additional  lengths  of  cable.  One  end  of  the 
broken  cable  has  been  picked  up  and 
fastened  to  a  buoy,  but  the  other  end  has 
thus  far  eluded  the  vigilant  rescuers.  A 
dozen  times  the  grapple  has  caught  hold  of 
it,  and  every  time,  before  it  could  be  brought 
on  board  and  secured,  the  cable  has  parted 
again,  being  broken  by  the  high  waves. 
This  has  happened  so  often,  and  the  breaks 
have  been  so  extensive,  that  at  the  last  re- 
port there  was  no  less  than  forty-six  miles 
between  the  broken  ends  of  that  cable.  The 
break  was  a  matter  of  a  minute,  repairing 


264:  THE  WOBLD'S  CHILDHOOD 

it  is  a  matter  of  some  months  already,  and 
no  one  knows  how  many  more. 

Eve's  sin  was  like  that  broken  cable.  It 
was  the  work  of  a  moment,  but  it  broke  the 
cable  connection  between  her  heart  and  God, 
and  caused  her  to  be  to  Adam  not  what  God 
had  purposed  her  to  be,  a  helpmeet  that 
should  lead  him  upward,  but  a  tempter  that 
should  lead  him  downward. 


The  first  great  message  of  our  theme, 
which  I  wish  to  impress  on  our  thoughts,  is 
the  fact  of  our  influence  upon  others. 
AVhether  we  will  or  not,  we  are  constantly 
affecting  other  lives  than  our  own.  No  man 
can  say,  *^I  am  my  own,  and  I  will  live  my 
own  life  and  have  no  effect  or  influence  on 
anybody  else.''  That  is  absolutely  impossi- 
ble. The  late  Dr.  Eeuen  Thomas  declared 
that  an  individual  life  would  have  to  start 
as  the  Scriptures  say  of  the  life  of  Melchize- 
dek,  without  father  and  without  mother.  We 
all  of  us  are  related.  Whether  we  choose 
to  acknowledge  it  or  not,  the  fact  remains. 


THE  8INNEB  BECOMES  THE  TEMPTER       265 

We  need  not  concern  ourselves,  however, 
about  remote  ancestries.  Those  immediately 
back  of  us  we  can  not  help  but  know  have 
influenced  us  more  or  less.  We  see  family 
likenesses  extending  not  alone  to  facial  ex- 
pression, but  family  likenesses  extending  to 
character.  If  you  find  a  proud  and  obstinate 
mother,  you  are  pretty  sure,  if  there  are 
children  in  the  family,  to  find  also  a  proud 
and  obstinate  son;  if  you  find  a  weak  and 
indolent  father,  you  will  not  be  surprised 
if  somewhere  in  the  family  you  find  a  still 
weaker  and  more  indolent  daughter.  Our 
relationships  count  for  something.  They 
are  not  mere  matters  of  convenience.  Soul, 
as  well  as  body,  descends.  And  yet  every 
man  has  something  which  individualizes  him. 
There  is  a  spark,  as  it  were,  of  spiritual  life 
in  every  one  of  us,  as  there  is  a  spark  of 
electricity  in  every  drop  of  water  and  in 
every  grain  of  sand.  Electricity  in  matter 
is  often  used  to  represent  spirituality  in 
mind.  So  each  of  us  is  confronted  with 
these  two  facts — the  fact  of  relationship  to 
others,  making  our  life  a  continuation  of 
their  life,  and  the  fact  of  each  of  us  having 
a  distinct  personality.     Now,  this  relation 


266  TEE  WORLD'S  CHILDHOOD 

to  others,  from  which  we  can  not  free  our- 
selves, shows  that  the  good  in  us  and  the 
evil  in  us  are  not  entirely  our  own,  and  that 
no  man  can  be  judged  simply  as  an  indi- 
vidual. It  is  not  our  own  until  we  adopt 
it  as  our  own.  Eelated  all  around  as  we 
are,  we  can  see  that  Paul  announces  a  uni- 
versal law  of  life  when  he  says,  ^^For  none 
of  us  liveth  to  himself,  and  no  man  dieth 
to  himself.'*  Every  man  is  related  all 
around.  Is  it  not  clear  that  no  good  man 
lives  to  himself?  The  very  idea  of  goodness 
implies  unselfishness,  kindness,  sympathy. 
When  a  man  with  whole-hearted  sincerity 
cooperates  with  God,  or,  as  Paul  says, 
*4ives  unto  the  Lord,''  then  we  see  that 
he  is  not  living  to  himself.  And  yet  if  we 
look  into  the  matter  sufficiently  close  we 
shall  find  that  there  is  a  sense  in  which  a 
man  is  never  so  much  living  to  himself  or 
for  his  own  interests  as  when  he  is  volun- 
tarily living  to  God.  The  laws  of  the 
universe  are  such  that  benevolence  ulti- 
mately hangs  up  by  the  neck  the  man  whose 
selfishness  has  blinded  his  eyes  to  the  fact 
that  he  has  been  occupying  himself  all  his 
life,  like  Haman  of  old,  building  a  gallows 


THE  SINNEB  BECOMES  THE  TEMPTEB       267 

for  his  own  disaster,  for  living  to  himself 
is  forever  an  impossible  task.  In  some 
degree  or  other  every  man  is  multiplying 
himself;  his  character  does  not  remain  at 
home,  but  it  travels  abroad. 

These  are  solemn  facts.  Dr.  Chalmers, 
the  great  Scotch  preacher,  once  said  that 
every  man  is  a  missionary  now  and  forever, 
for  good  or  for  evil,  whether  he  intends  it 
or  designs  it  or  not.  He  may  be  a  blot 
radiating  his  dark  influence  to  the  very  cir- 
cumference of  society;  or  he  may  be  a 
blessing,  spreading  benediction  over  the 
length  and  breadth  of  the  world ;  but  a  blank 
he  can  not  be.  There  are  no  moral  blanks. 
There  are  no  neutral  characters.  "We  are 
either  the  sower  that  sows,  or  the  light 
that  splendidly  illuminates,  or  the  salt  that 
silently  operates;  dead  or  alive,  every  man 
speaks. 


n 


This  study  of  influence  must  certainly 
make  sin  look  more  terrible  to  us  than  when 
we  think  of  it  only  as  a  personal  matter, 
for  no  man  can  tell  how  far  his  sin  may 


268  THE  WORLD  *S  CHILDHOOD 

spread  in  its  deadly  influence.  A  while  ago 
scientific  men  made  investigations  into  the 
cause  of  a  contagious  disease  which  had 
spread  over  the  city  of  Moscow.  It  turned 
out  that  a  young  man  had  been  stealing  gold- 
fish, which  he  put  in  a  little  tank  in  the 
floor  of  his  room,  covered  with  the  boards, 
to  keep  until  he  could  sell  them  in  another 
place.  Soon  after  the  great  contagion 
sprang  up  in  that  vicinity — indeed,  in  that 
very  room.  It  began  with  him  at  first,  and 
he  was  left  crippled  and  blind,  and  went 
limping  along  on  crutches,  a  suffering,  per- 
manent invalid.  The  contagion  spread  to 
others,  and  upon  examination  made  by  scien- 
tific men  from  Warsaw  and  Berlin  they 
found  that  these  fish  had  died  in  the  tank, 
and  that  they  were  of  such  a  nature  as  to 
spread  at  once  a  contagion  which  became 
of  a  most  malignant  type.  A  scourge  over- 
spread the  land  and  carried  away  tens  of 
thousands  of  innocent  people.  Sin  is  like 
that.  Every  act  of  evil  deposited  in  a  heart 
given  over  to  disobedience  to  Grod  breeds  a 
miasma,  the  fumes  of  which  go  out  unseen 
on  the  silent  air,  poisoning  the  life  of  others. 


THE  SINNEB  BECOMES  THE  TEMPTER       269 
III 

There  is  another  thought  that  ought  to 
give  us  pause  in  the  study  of  this  theme, 
and  that  is  that  when  we  sin  against  God 
we  are  most  likely  to  bring  hurt  to  the 
people  that  are  dearest  to  us.  The  stranger 
or  the  people  who  do  not  care  for  us,  and 
for  whom  we  do  not  care,  are  likely  to  be 
the  least  influenced  by  our  conduct.  But 
those  whom  we  love  and  for  whose  happiness 
we  have  great  desire,  and  the  people  who 
tenderly  love  us,  they  are  the  people  who 
will  be  the  most  quickly  damaged  and 
harmed  by  our  sin.  Eve  could  not  sin  alone. 
She  immediately  afterward  became  a 
tempter  to  her  husband.  And  so  when  we 
sin,  the  one  we  love  is  likely  to  be  the  most 
harmed  by  our  sin.  And  surely  it  was  a 
terrible  thing  that  Eve,  having  been  tempted 
and  deceived  by  Satan,  should  immediately 
become  herself  a  Satan  to  work  ruin  to  him 
whom  she  loved  best.  Henry  Ward  Beecher 
brings  out  this  truth  very  clearly  in  a 
sermon  on  the  murder  of  John  the  Baptist 
by  Herod,  which  was  brought  about  against 
the  judgment  and  desire  of  Herod  under  the 


270  THE  WORLD'S  CHILDHOOD 

influence  of  his  wife  Herodias.  When  Herod 
ensnared  his  brother's  wife,  when  he  tempted 
her  into  adulterous  abandonment  of  her  hus- 
band and  into  unlawful  fellowship  with  him, 
he  wa3  the  aggressor  and  she  was  the  part- 
ner ;  but  when  they  were  living  in  unholy  con- 
cord she  became  the  avenger,  and  her  influence 
upon  him  led  him  into  the  infamous  crime 
of  John's  murder.  He  destroyed  her  virtue, 
and  she  destroyed  his  manhood;  and  from 
that  time  to  this  how  many  have  been  de- 
stroyed by  those  who  should  have  been  their 
protectors,  and  who  should  have  inspired  in 
them  purity  and  gentleness  and  forgiveness ! 
Oh,  what  chance  was  there  for  sweet  and 
wholesome  water  to  come  out  of  such 
fountains!  But  they  rotted  together  and 
spoiled  each  other.  How  many  times,  if  we 
could  look  into  the  secrets  of  the  household, 
should  we  see  the  same  work  going  on:  a 
bad  man  lowering  the  tone  of  the  woman 
that  came  to  him  pure  and  simple-minded, 
destroying  her  aspirations,  familiarizing  her 
with  vulgarity,  urging  all  his  influence  and 
power  to  take  away  from  her  the  fear  of 
evil  and  wrong,  and  rather  rejoicing  as 
every  barrier  is  broken  down  to  bring  her  to 


TEE  8INNEB  BECOMES  TEE  TEMPTEB       271 

his  level!  And  how  many  men  have  been 
despoiled  by  hard,  selfish,  and  ambitious 
wives,  the  man  being  simple-minded,  and 
on  the  whole  having  right  notions,  and  the 
woman  perpetually  employing  the  subtle  arts 
of  influence,  persuasion,  and  fascination,  and 
all  of  them  in  the  direction  of  selfishness, 
and  often  in  the  direction  of  corruption  and 
malignant  crime. 

There  is  in  all  this  a  tremendous  message 
for  us.  We  can  not  sin  against  God  with- 
out poisoning  the  very  streams  of  our  af- 
fection, so  that  our  very  love  will  have  in 
it  a  touch  of  death  and  disaster  to  those 
that  come  under  its  influence.  And  some- 
times the  pleasant  sins  of  selfishness  and 
worldly  indifference  to  sacred  things  work 
the  greatest  destruction  to  those  whom  we 
love. 

When  Dr.  Wilbur  Chapman  was  conduct- 
ing a  mission  in  an  Eastern  city,  a  young 
man  came  to  him  one  day  at  the  close  of  the 
service  and  said:  **You  talk  about  a  mother. 
Whenever  you  speak  of  your  mother  my 
heart  aches,  and  I  get  into  a  rebellious  spirit. 
My  mother  has  never  told  me  that  she  loved 
me.     My  mother  has  never  invited  me  to 


272  THE  WOELD'S  CHILDHOOD 

become  a  Christian.  My  mother  is  a  social 
queen  and  a  rich  woman  in  this  city.  I 
would  be  ashamed  to  say  it  publicly,  but,  sir, 
some  day  you  ought  to  preach  a  sermon  to 
the  boys  and  girls  who  have  had  no  true 
mothers. '^  Is  there  any  mother  here  who 
would  like  to  have  her  boy  talk  like  that! 
But,  how  about  it?  Are  you  giving  him  to 
understand  that  his  mother  by  example,  and 
prayer,  and  love,  cares  more  for  his  good- 
ness and  his  purity  of  soul  than  anything 
else?  Eemember  that  your  selfishness  and 
your  worldliness  and  indifference  to  God 
and  Christ  as  a  father  or  a  mother  may  be 
the  poison  of  hell  to  the  children  who  are 
dearer  to  you  than  your  own  life. 

Once,  during  the  Civil  War,  after  a  great 
battle,  a  chaplain  going  about  among  the 
wounded  in  the  hospital  stopt  beside  the 
bed  of  a  young  fellow  and  said:  **Can  I 
do  anything  for  you?"  The  boy  said:  **Yes, 
chaplain,  pray  for  me."  And  the  chaplain 
thought  that  he  was  to  pray  that  the  young 
fellow  might  be  ready  to  die,  but  when  he 
started  in  that  way,  the  boy  broke  in  on 
the  prayer,  saying:  ** Chaplain,  just  be 
thankful  for  me.     First  of  all,  thank  God 


THE  SINNER  BECOMES  THE  TEMPTEB       273 

for  my  mother.  Thank  Him  that  she  ever 
gave  me  birth.  Thank  Him  that  when  I 
came  into  the  world  she  wet  my  face  with 
her  kisses;  that  when  I  could  not  walk 
alone  she  held  me;  that  when  I  grew  to 
young  manhood  she  steadied  me.  Thank 
Him  that  I  have  a  Savior.  Thank  Him  that 
the  gates  of  heaven  are  open.  Thank  Him 
that  I  am  going  home.^'  Who  would  not 
like  to  be  worthy  to  be  a  mother  whose  in- 
fluence should  produce  a  boy  like  that,  and 
give  to  him  ^  benediction  such  as  that  mother 
bestowed  upon  her  son  ?  Thank  God !  Many 
men  grown  gray  could  gladly  join  with 
the  poet  who  sings : 

"Rock  of  Ages,  cleft  for  me"— 

Mother  sang  it  long  ago, 
Sang  it  low  and  soothingly. 

Rocking   in   the    afterglow. 
Sang  it  to  me  as  I  slept 

In  my  snowy  trundle-bed, 
As  the  lengthening  shadows  crept 
Eerie  like  about  her  head. 

*'Let  me  hide  myself  in  Thee" — 

Still  I  hear  it  echo  there, 
As  she  sang  it  o'er  to  me, 

From  her  swaying  rocking-chair; 


274  THE  WORLD'S  CHILDHOOD 

And  I  am  a  boy  again, 

As  so  sweetly  back  along 
Distant  years    I  catch  the  strain 

Of  that  old  familiar  song. 

/'Other  refuge  have  I  none" — 

Often  in  the  long,  long  years 
I  have  missed  the  touch  of  one 

Who  could  soothe  my  doubts  and  f  e^rs, 
One  to  whom  I  used  to  go 

With  each  boyish  grief  and  care. 
Sometimes  in  the  afterglow, 

I  catch  glimpses  of  her  there. 

*'Rock  of  Ages"— and  I  feel 

Mother's  arms  about  me  prest, 
As  to  her  embrace  I'd  steal 

To  be  rocked  away  to  rest. 
Dreamy-like   once  more  I  hear 

Softly,  gently,  soothingly, 
That  faint  echo  in  my  ear: 

*'Let  me  hide  myself  in  Thee." 


THE  DAWN  OF  GUILT 

**The    eyes    of    them   both    were    opened    and   they 
knew  that  they  were  naked." — Gen.  3 :  7. 

SOME  time  ago  passers-by  in  the  streets  of 
Paris  were  attracted  by  the  figure  of  a 
woman  on  the  parapet  of  a  roof.  She  had 
fallen  asleep  in  the  afternoon,  and  under  the 
influence  of  somnambulism  had  stept  out  of 
an  open  window  on  to  the  edge  of  the  house. 
There  she  was  walking  to  and  fro,  to  the 
horror  of  the  gazers  below,  who  expected 
every  moment  to  witness  a  false  step  and 
terrible  fall.  They  dared  not  shout,  lest 
by  awaking  her  suddenly  they  should  be  only 
hastening  the  inevitable  calamity.  But  this 
came  soon  enough ;  for  moving,  as  somnambu- 
lists do,  with  eyes  open,  the  reflection  of  a 
lamp  lit  in  an  opposite  window  by  an  artizan 
engaged  in  some  mechanical  operation,  all 
unconscious  of  what  was  going  on  outside, 
aroused  her  from  sleep.  The  moment  her 
eyes  were  opened  to  discover  the  perilous 
position  in  which  she  had  placed  herself,  she 

275 


276  TH3  WOULD* S  CBlLBEOOD 

tottered,  fell,  and  was  dashed  below.  So, 
Joseph  Parker  says,  temptation  blinds  us, 
but  guilt  opens  our  eyes ;  temptation  is  night, 
guilt  is  morning.  In  guilt  we  see  ourselves, 
we  see  our  hideousness,  we  see  our  baseness, 
we  see  hell !  ' '  Their  eyes  were  opened, ' '  and 
they  saw  that  their  character  was  gone! 
You  can  throw  away  a  character  in  one  act 
as  you  throw  away  a  stone,  but  you  can  not 
go  after  it  and  recover  it  in  the  same  way. 
You  may  get  it  back  again  by  penitence  and 
strife,  but  it  is  something  different  even 
then.  A  stone  that  is  thrown  along  the 
road  you  may  recover,  but  a  stone  thrown  at 
night  into  the  sea  who  can  get  back  again? 


Even  with  all  our  knowledge  of  sin  in 
ourselves  and  in  the  men  and  women  whom 
we  know,  it  is  hard  for  us  to  appreciate  what 
the  dawn  of  guilt  must  have  meant  amid  the 
innocence  and  beauty  and  perfect  joy  and 
peace  which  reigned  in  the  Garden  of  God. 
It  is  hard  for  us  to  appreciate  the  transfor- 
mation which  changed  all  the  forces  of  the 


THE  DAWN  OF  GUILT  277 

soul  from  instruments  that  give  pleasure  to 
powers  that  can  punish. 

Watkinson  quotes  one  of  our  American 
naturalists  as  saying  that  the  human  brain  is 
full  of  birds.  The  song-birds  might  have 
all  been  hatched  in  the  human  heart,  so  well 
do  they  express  the  whole  gamut  of  human* 
passion  and  emotion  in  their  varied  songs. 
The  plaintive  singers,  the  soaring,  ecstatic 
singers,  the  gushing  singers,  the  inarticulate 
singers — robin,  dove,  lark,  thrush,  mocking- 
bird, nightingale  —  all  are  expressive  of 
human  emotions,  desire,  love,  sadness, 
aspirations,  glee.  Very  beautiful,  indeed,  is 
it  to  find  our  brain  full  of  sweet  minstrels 
of  the  air;  but,  alas!  when  guilt  dawned  on 
the  human  soul  as  the  result  of  disobedience 
to  God  and  the  yielding  to  temptation  to 
evil,  the  mysterious  and  marvelous  human 
soul  was  so  changed  that  it  became  the 
nesting-place  of  a  far  different  sort  of  birds. 
Jesus  Christ,  who  knew  what  was  in  man, 
and  who,  loving  man  better  than  any  one 
else,  still  saw  what  sin  had  wrought  there, 
gives  us  a  view  of  a  sinful  heart,  showing 
it  to  be  the  hold  of  every  foul  spirit  and 
a  cage  of  every  unclean  and  hateful  bird. 


278  TEE  WORLD'S  CHILDHOOD 

Fierce  hawk,  croaking  raven,  ravenous  vul- 
ture, obscene  birds,  birds  of  discord,  birds 
of  darkness,  birds  of  tempest,  birds  of  blood 
and  death — these  are  all  typical  of  the 
heart's  base  passions;  these  all  brood  and 
nestle  within  and  fly  forth  to  darken  and 
pollute  and  destroy. 


II 

Our  theme  shows  us  clearly  that  the  dawn 
of  guilt  means  the  awakening  in  the  sinning 
soul  of  a  sense  of  shame  and  loss  of  self-re- 
spect. And  that  is  a  characteristic  of  sin.  No 
man  ever  consciously  sins  against  God  without 
a  feeling  that  he  is  tarnished,  he  is  damaged, 
he  is  in  some  sense  unclean,  he  has  lost  the  true 
manhood,  the  nobility  of  his  self-respect.  A 
man  told  me  that  once  in  a  Boston  hotel 
several  men  who  were  casual  acquaintances 
met  in  the  lobby,  and  during  the  conversa- 
tion one  man  invited  the  others  into  the 
barroom  to  drink  with  him.  Among  these 
men  there  was  one  with  his  little  boy,  and 
he  begged  to  be  excused  until  he  went  to 
his  room  and  left  the  boy.     Being  a  little 


TEE  DAWN  OF  GUILT  279 

curious  about  it,  the  man  who  related  the 
incident  asked  him  why  he  did  that,  and  the 
other  man  blushed  and  showed  a  good  deal 
of  consciousness  of  shame  when  he  said  that 
he  did  not  care  to  have  his  little  boy  see  him 
drink  at  the  bar.  It  is  easy  to  see  that  that 
man's  eyes  were  opened  to  regard  himself  as 
a  damaged  man.  A  sense  of  shame  made 
him  uncomfortable.  Right  there  is  one  of 
the  points  where  Satan  is  always  deceiving 
young  men  and  young  women.  The  devil 
tries  to  make  men  believe  that  careful  obedi- 
ence to  God  is  a  sort  of  slavery  and  that  in 
personal  liberty,  the  doing  what  we  please 
without  regard  to  the  Bible  or  our  own  con- 
science on  the  subject,  is  in  some  sense  fine 
and  splendid,  quite  superior  in  a  way;  but 
the  realization  is  very  different.  When  the 
deceived  soul  has  broken  away  from  God 
and  taken  its  own  course,  it  soon  finds  that 
sin  shames  and  degrades  and  despoils  us 
of  the  finest  sense  of  courage  and  confi- 
dence. I  have  been  reading  recently  a 
story  of  a  man  who  has  been  in  Africa  hunt- 
ing lions,  who  tells  of  the  terrible  disap- 
pointment the  experience  was  to  him.  He 
thought  a  lion  was  a  terrible  beast,  coura- 


280  TEE  WORLD'S  CHILDHOOD 

geous,  magnificent,  and  all  that.  But  his 
first  lion  opened  his  eyes  and  the  sight  was 
immensely  disappointing.  It  shambled  along 
with  head  down  and  nothing  majestic  about 
it.  That  skulking  beast,  gray-yellow  in  hue, 
almost  maneless,  stealing  shamefacedly  along 
like  an  unwieldy  cat,  was  that  the  monarch 
of  the  forest?  The  average  lion  of  the 
menagerie  has  twice  his  grandeur  and  three 
times  his  growth  of  mane;  such,  the  hunter 
meditated,  is  the  effect  of  regular  and 
generous  feeding.  Sin  is  always  a  skulking, 
vicious  thing.  The  devil  often  deludes  the 
young  into  viewing  a  sinful  life  as  full  of 
something  fascinating  and  heroic,  but  sin 
has  been  a  skulker  and  a  vagabond  from  the 
beginning. 


Ill 


Our  theme  brings  out  with  terrible  clearness 
the  premonition  of  disaster  and  the  dread  of 
God  which  guilt  brings  upon  the  soul.  Adam 
and  Eve  had  basked  in  the  smile  of  God. 
They  had  conversed  with  God  as  with  a 
dear  friend.  His  perfect  love  was  their 
supreme  joy.     But  as   soon  as   they  yield 


TEE  DAWN  OF  GUILT  281 

to  temptation  and  break  His  command- 
ment, the  dawn  of  gnilt  brings  sunset  on 
the  joyous  day  of  their  innocence,  and  they 
shiver  and  shrink  away  from  the  presence  of 
Grod.  Heretofore  they  have  rejoiced  in  the 
presence  of  their  Heavenly  Father,  now  they 
are  afraid  and  they  dread  and  flee  from 
Him.  Something  like  that  is  forever  hap- 
pening when  we  yield  ourselves  to  sin.  Eegi- 
nald  Campbell  paints  a  graphic  picture  of 
this  mysterious  but  tremendously  real  con- 
sciousness of  sin:  Here  is  a  man  who 
started  life  high  in  the  social  scale.  He  has 
come  down,  he  has  flung  away  his  opportuni- 
ties, he  has  forfeited  the  regard  of  his 
friends,  maybe  he  has  broken  his  mother's 
heart  and  brought  down  his  father's  gray 
hairs  in  sorrow  to  the  grave.  We  have  all 
known  many  such.  Mark  him  as  he  sits 
near  you,  shabbily  drest,  unkempt,  hope- 
less-looking, the  flash  of  his  eye  dimmed,  his 
manhood  gone.  If  you  were  to  talk  to  him 
about  sin  in  ordinary  religious  language, 
he  would  be  angry  and  impatient;  but  if 
you  tell  him  he  has  made  his  bed  and  must 
lie  on  it,  he  will  bow  his  head  in  shame,  for 
he  knows  that  it  is  true. 


282  TEE  WOBLD'S  CHILDHOOD 

Close  by  him  sits  another.  You  pitied  the 
poor  unfortunate,  but  here  is  more  cause  for 
pity.  He  is  cursed  with  success,  because 
the  foundation  of  that  success  was  laid  in 
falsehood.  Years  ago  he  got  his  first  op- 
portunity by  telling  a  black  lie.  He  has  suc- 
ceeded; but  if  he  could  put  the  clock  back 
and  cancel  that  lie  there  are  times  when  he 
would  gladly  give  up  all  his  success.  But 
he  can  not;  other  people  are  concerned 
beside  himself,  and  to  publish  to  the  world 
what  he  is  and  what  he  was  would  be  use- 
less now.  He  has  nothing  to  do  with  re- 
ligion, for  he  will  not  play  the  hypocrite. 
But  his  remorse  is  eating  out  his  heart. 

Here  is  another  case — a  man  who  fights 
with  an  evil  propensity  the  very  existence  of 
which  is  a  humiliation.  He  won  a  victory 
this  morning,  but  he  knows  that  to-morrow 
the  fight  will  have  to  be  fought  all  over 
again.  He  is  wrestling  with  a  demon,  the 
existence  of  which  it  may  be  few,  if  any, 
of  his  close  friends  suspect.  Oh!  pity  the 
man  with  a  vile  secret  sin.  His  despairing 
cry  of  agony  rises  up — *^Is  there  no  help 
for  such  as  II"  We  may  sympathize,  but 
without  the  experience  we  never  can  really 


THE  DAWN  OF  GUILT  283 

know  the  sorrow  of  a  man  like  that.  Wash- 
ington Allston  spent  more  than  twelve  years 
attempting  to  paint  the  chief  scene  of  Bel- 
shazzar's  feast,  and  then  left  the  work  un- 
finished. It  is  said  that  the  chief  difficulty 
which  the  artist's  genius  could  not  overcome 
was  that  of  depicting  the  despair  of  the 
doomed  king.  Well  it  might  be  so,  for  it 
was  the  despair  of  a  lost  soul  brought  sud- 
denly face  to  face  with  the  retributive  judg- 
ment of  God,  written  by  a  mysterious  hand 
from  another  world.  What  art  can  portray 
it  in  the  look  of  a  human  face?  That  pic- 
ture now  hangs  in  the  Art  Museum  in  Bos- 
ton. Its  unfinished  condition  is  perhaps  the 
strongest  testimony  to  the  terror  of  a  guilty 
conscience.  Lord  Byron,  who  came  at  last 
through  his  own  sinful  heart  to  have  a  kin- 
dred feeling,  saw  the  picture  in  his  poetic 
vision : 

The  king  was  on  his  throne, 

The  satraps  thronged  the  hall, 
A  thousand  bright  lamps  shone 

O'er  that  high  festival. 
A  thousand  cups  of  gold, 

In  Judah  deemed  divine — 
Jehovah's  vessels  hold 

The  godless  heathen's  wine. 


284  TR:E  WORLD'S  CHILDHOOD 

In  that  same  hour  and  hall, 

The  fingers  cf  a  hand 
\      Came  forth  against  the  wall, 

And  wrote  as  if  on  sand: 
The  fingers  of  a  man; — 

A  solitary  hand 
Along  the  letters  ran, 

And  traced  them  like  a  wand. 

The   monarch   saw,   and   shook, 

And  bade  no  more  rejoice; 
All  bloodless  waxed  his  look. 

And  tremulous  his  voice. 
*'Let  the  men  of  lore  appear. 

The  wisest  of  the  earth, 
And  expound  the  words  of  fear. 

Which  mar  our  royal  mirth." 

Chaldea's  seers  are  good, 

But  here  they  have  no  skill ; 
And  the  unknown  letters  stood 

Untold  and  awful  still. 
And  Babel's  men  of  age 

Are  wise  and  deep  in  lore; 
But  now  they  were  not  sage. 

They  saw — but  knew  no  more. 

A  captive  in  the  land, 
A  stranger  and  a  youth. 

He  heard  the  king's  command. 
He  saw  that  writing's  truth. 


TEE  DAWN  OF  GUILT  285 

The  lamps  around  were  bright, 

The  prophecy  in  view; 
He  read  it  on  that  night, — 

The  morrow  proved  it  true. 

Belshazzar's  grave  is  made, 

His  kingdom  passed  away, 
He,  in  the  balance  weighed, 

Is  light  and  worthless  clay. 
The  shroud  his  robe  of  state. 

His  canopy  the  stone; 
The  Mede  is  at  his  gate ! 

The  Persian  on  his  throne! 

Sin  uncleansed  from  the  heart  and  the 
life  must  always  bring  about  a  sad  doom. 
But  it  is  the  glory  of  our  Christianity  that 
it  has  the  power  to  cleanse  the  heart  of  the 
poison  of  guilt,  to  take  the  sting  of  sin 
out  of  the  soul,  and  bring  man  back  again 
into  harmony  and  peace  with  God.  Oh^ 
the  gentleness  and  the  patience  of  God,  who 
follows  after  us  in  our  sins  with  infinite 
loving  kindness  to  reclaim  us  from  our  lost 
estate ! 

Some  years  ago  the  wife  of  a  noble-hearted 
business  man  in  Chicago  became  insane,  and 
yet  this  man  loved  his  wife  as  never  before 
and  gave  up  his  business  that  he  might  give 


286  THE  WOBLB'S  CHILDHOOD 

her  tender  care.  The  neighbors  complained 
of  her  shrieking  and  he  moved  to  a  new 
neighborhood,  built  a  large  house,  put  a 
great  fence  about  it,  only  to  have  other  com- 
plaints come  to  him,  which,  of  course,  he 
could  not  heed,  for  his  wife  whom  he  loved 
was  under  his  own  care.  One  day  the 
physician  suggested  to  him  that  he  take  her 
to  the  mountains  where  she  was  born.  Possi- 
bly the  mountain  scenery,  the  music  of  the 
birds,  and  the  sight  of  the  flowers  she  used 
to  love  would  bring  back  again  her  old 
mental  power.  The  journey  was  made,  but 
with  disappointing  results,  and  the  broken- 
hearted husband  set  his  face  toward  Chi- 
cago without  his  cherished  desire  being 
granted  him.  But  when  they  reached  their 
city  home  the  wife  fell  asleep.  Sitting  by  her 
bedside  he  scarcely  stirred  for  fear  he 
would  arouse  her,  for  she  had  had  no  natural 
sleep  for  months.  She  slept  on  and  on, 
and  all  night  long  he  sat  there  by  her  side, 
thanking  God  for  the  sleep  that  had  come 
to  her  and  hoping  against  hope  that  it  was  an 
omen  of  happier  days.  As  the  sun  rose  in  the 
morning  she  opened  her  eyes  to  look  with 
clear  vision   into   her   husband's   face   and 


THE  DAWN  OF  GUILT  287 

say,  ** Where  have  I  been  all  this  timer' 
And  he  said,  '^You  have  been  away  on  a 
journey,  but  now  you  have  returned  to  me." 
**Aiid  where  have  you  been  all  this  time?'' 
she  asked,  and  his  answer,  made  with  sobs, 
was,  ^^I  have  been  sitting  by  your  side 
waiting,  and  now  you  have  returned  to  me.' ' 
And  yet  even  that,  beautiful  and  noble  as  it 
is,  is  but  a  poor  picture  of  the  infinite  God 
waiting  by  the  sinner's  side  through  all  his 
days  and  nights  of  guilt  and  transgression, 
seeking  to  woo  him  while  he  waits.  Are 
there  not  some  who  hear  me  for  whom  God 
has  been  thus  waiting,  who  will  open  your 
eyes  and  see  your  Lord,  and  then  in  memory 
of  all  His  patience  and  loving  kindness  say 
with  David,  **Thy  gentleness  hath  made 
me  great"? 


USELESS  COVERING  FOR  SIN 

^'They   sewed   fig-leaves   together   and   made   them- 
selves aprons." — Gen.  3 :  7. 

THESE  fig-leaf  garments  which  Adam  and 
Eve  sewed  together  in  the  Garden  of 
Eden,  which  had  suddenly  lost  its  sense  of 
peace  and  security,  are  expressive  of  the 
vivid  and  horrible  transformation  from  in- 
nocence to  guilt  in  a  soul  which  has  yielded 
to  evil.  A  consciousness  of  nakedness,  a 
desire  to  cover  up  that  which  would  shame 
and  disgrace  us,  is  one  of  the  first  results 
of  sin.  Some  one  has  said  that  there  is  no 
man  who  would  not  rather  die  than  that  all 
which  he  knows  of  himself  should  be  known 
to  the  world.  It  is  the  want  of  a  covering 
which  we  so  deeply  and  thoroughly  feel.  So 
that  when  we  turn  for  sympathy  to  each 
other,  our  language  conceals  as  much  as  it 
expresses ;  and  when  we  turn  to  God,  our 
prayers  immediately  take  the  form  of  con- 
fession, tho  it  be  but  to  confess  what  we 
know  that  He  knows ;  yet  it  is  expressive  of 
a  burden  which  we  feel,  and  which  we  most 
of  all  wish  to  get  rid  of;  and  in  turning 

288 


USELESS  COVEEINa  t'OB  SIN  28d 

to  Him,  our  feeling  is,  *^Thou  art  a  place  to 
hide  me  in'^:  *^Thou  shalt  hide  me  by  thine 
own  presence/'  Did  the  Psalmist  mean  to 
be  hidden  from  other  men?  Perhaps  that 
thought  was  in  it  also,  but  the  chief  thought 
was  that  he  might  be  hidden  from  himself, 
that  his  sin  might  be  covered.  The  Savior 
in  His  message  to  the  churches  as  given  to 
John  says  to  one  of  them,  ^^Thou  sayest,  I 
am  rich,  and  knowest  not  that  thou  art 
poor  and  miserable  and  blind  and  naked/' 
That  which  makes  the  chief  dread  of  death 
is  the  thought  that  all  our  disguises  will  be 
stript  from  us  and  we  shall  go  naked  into 
the  land  of  spirits.  Paul  says,  **For  in  this, 
our  earthly  house,  we  groan,  earnestly  de- 
siring to  be  clothed  upon";  **If  so  be  that, 
being  clothed,  we  shall  not  be  found  naked." 
The  glory  of  the  redeemed  is  to  be  **  clothed 
in  white  raiment  before  the  throne,"  and 
to  *^walk  with  Christ  in  white." 


We  are  so  made  that  by  the  very  character 
of  our  creation  it  is  impossible  for  us  to 
securely    cover    our    own    sins.      Take    the 


290  TRE  WOBLD'S  CHILDHOOD 

power  of  the  human  memory.  While  it  en- 
riches us,  it  carries  with  it  also  all  the 
elements  necessary  for  the  sinner's  bitter 
despair.  Walt  Whitman  once  wrote  a  little 
poem  entitled,  *^The  Dome  of  Pictures,"  in 
which  he  said: 


In  a  little  house  keep  I  pictures  suspended;  it  is  not 

a  fixt  little  house, 
It  is  round,  it  is  only  a  few  inches  from  one  side  to 

the   other; 
Yet   behold,   it   has   room   for   all    the   shows   of   the 

world,  all  memories! 
Here  the  tableaux  of  life,  and  here  the  groupings  of 

death. 


Meditating  on  this  thought  of  Whitman's, 
Sam  Walter  Foss  has  taken  it  for  a  text, 
and  written  a  song  helpful  for  its  practical 
suggestion : 


Ah,  each  man  bears  his  Dome  of  Dreams — 
A  picture  dome 
Whereon   are   painted  homely   cares,  > 

Defeats  and  triumphs  and  despairs; 
A  gallery  thronged  with  wider  themes 
Than  those  of  Rome. 


USELESS  COVERING  FOB  SIN  291 

The  pictures  on  this  Dome  of  Dreams 
Are  memories. 
Young  Barefoot  wandering  through  the  dew, 
Through  daisied  fields  when  life  was  new, 
By  woodland  paths,  by  lilied  streams 
And  blossomed  trees. 


The  picture  of  a  maid  at  school 
With  floating  hair; 
Transfigured  in  the  mist  is  she 
On  that  dim  shore  of  memory, 
Life's  dewiness  about  her,  cool 
And  pure  and  fair. 


The  picture  of  a  road  that  leads 
From  an  old  home : 
A  boy  that  from  a  wooded  swell 
Lookg  through  his  tears  and  waves  farewell — 
Then  down  through  unknown  hills  and  meads 
Afar  to  roam. 


The  pictures  of  the  long,  long  way 
He  traveled  far; 
Fair  fruited  hillsides  slanting  south, 
Baked  herbless  uplands  smit  with  drouth, 
And  night  paths  with  no  gleam  of  day — 
Without  a  star. 


^d^  fKE  WORLD'S  CEILDHOOD 

And  pictures  of  wide-sleeping  vales 
And  storm-tossed  waves; 
Of  valleys  bathed  in  noonday  peace, 
Of  sheltered  harbors  of  release, 

Blue  inlets  specked  with  sunlit  sails; 
Of  open  graves. 

And  pictures  of  fair  islands  set 
In  golden  foam; 
And  pictures  of  black  wrecks  upcast 
On  barren  crags  by  many  a  blast — 

But  on!     Life  paints  more  pictures  yet 
Upon  that  dome. 

The  quality  of  the  human  soul  is  such 
that  when  we  commit  sin  it  is  not  something 
outside  of  us;  it  becomes  a  picture  in  our 
own  memory ;  it  becomes  a  part  of  ourselves, 
and  no  man  can  tell  when  his  sin  will  dis- 
cover itself  and  give  him  up  to  justice.  Men 
shut  their  teeth  together  and  say  that  their 
past  evil  deeds  never  shall  be  known,  but 
they  fail  to  reckon  on  the  self-discovering 
power  of  sin.  All  peoples,  in  all  ages,  have 
had  proverbs  and  legends  which  tell  of  this 
universal  fact.  **The  Cranes  of  Ibycus'* 
have  long  since  passed  into  a  proverbial  ex- 
pression, and  the  old  story  is  full  of  sug- 
gestion.   The  story  is  that  Ibycus,  a  famous 


USELESS  COVE  BIN  G  FOB  SIN  293 

Grecian  poet,  was  going  to  Corinth.  Rob- 
bers attacked  and  murdered  him.  As  he  was 
falling  and  dying  he  looked  aromid  to  see 
if  there  were  no  witnesses  or  avengers.  All 
he  could  see  was  a  flock  of  cranes  high  in  the 
air.  With  his  last  strength  the  dying  poet 
called  on  the  cranes  to  avenge  his  blood.  The 
robbers  were  greatly  amused  at  it,  and  jested 
and  laughed  at  what  they  thought  was  an 
idle  call.  They  got  their  prey,  and  came  to 
Corinth.  They  went  to  the  open  theater. 
As  they  sat  there,  they  looked  up,  and  saw 
above  them  a  flight  of  cranes,  and  one 
scoffingly  said,  *^Lo,  there  are  the  avengers 
of  Ibycus,'^  and  they  all  laughed  heartlessly. 
The  words  were  overheard  by  a  man  sitting 
near  them.  Already  fears  of  the  poet's 
safety  began  to  be  common.  The  gang  was 
arrested,  and  on  being  questioned,  betrayed 
themselves,  and  were  put  to  death.  So, 
^*The  Cranes  of  Ibycus''  became  a  proverb. 
But  it  is  not  needed  that  even  **The 
Cranes  of  Ibycus*'  should  give  witness  to 
make  sure  that  a  man's  sins  will  find  him 
out.  Every  sinner  carries  in  his  own  heart 
and  in  his  own  mind  that  which  will  dis- 
cover him  to  judgment.    We  think  the  kineto- 


294:  TEE  WOELD*S  CHILDHOOD 

scope  a  wonderful  invention,  but  God  has 
His  kinetoscope  in  every  man's  memory. 
We  may  think  we  have  forgotten  some  things, 
but  we  have  not.  When  we  shall  stand  in  the 
clear  light  of  eternity,  all  the  negatives 
stored  away  in  the  great  storehouse  of  the 
human  soul  will  be  easily  developed.  Some 
men  seem  to  think  that  there  is  some  magical 
change  in  the  fact  of  death  to  separate  a 
man  from  his  sins,  but  there  is  no  such 
teaching  in  God's  Word,  and  it  is  utterly 
false  and  contrary  to  all  true  human  reason- 
ing. Shakespeare,  the  great  student  of  human 
nature,  brings  out  very  clearly  this  solemn 
truth  that  the  sinner  carries  the  evidence 
to  condemn  him  in  his  own  heart.  In 
^^Eichard  III''  he  makes  false  Clarence  say: 


My  dream  was  lengthened  after  life; 
Oh,  then  began  the  tempest  to  my  soul! 
I  passed,  methought,  the  melancholy  flood, 
With  that  gi'im  ferryman  which  poets  write  of 
Unto  the  kingdom  of  perpetual  night. 
The  first   that  there  did  greet  my  stranger  soul, 
Was  my  gi-eat  father-in-law,  renowned  Warwick, 
Who  cried  aloud — *^What  scourge  for  perjury 
Can  this  dark  monarchy  afford  :Calse  Clarence?'* 
And  so  he  vanished :    Then  came  wand  'ring  by 


USELESS  COVEBING  FOB  SIN  295 

A  shadow  like  an  angel,  with  bright  hair 

Dabbled  in  blood;  and  he  shrieked  out  aloud, 

'  *  Clarence  is  come — false,  fleeting,  perjured  Clarence — 

That  stabbed  me  in  the  field  by  Tewkesbury; 

Seize  on  him,  furies,  take  him  to  your  torments ! ' ' 

With  that,  methought,  a  legion  of  foul  fiends 

Environed  me,  and  howled  in  mine  ears 

Such  hideous  cries,  that,  with  the  very  noise, 

I  trembling  waked,  and,  for  a  season  after, 

Could  not  believe  but  that  I  was  in  hell; 

Such  terrible  impression  made  my  dream. 

I  have  done  these  things 
That  now  give  evidence  against  my  soul. 

Again  the  great  Shakespeare  makes  King 
Richard  say: 

My    conscience    hath    a    thousand   several    tongues, 

And  every  tongue  brings  in  a  several  tale, 

And  every  tale  condemns  me  for  a  villain, 

Perjury,  perjury,  in  the  highest  degree; 

Murder,   stern   murder,   in   the    direst   degree; 

All  several  sins,  all  used  in  each  degree. 

Throng  to  the  bar,  crying  all  *^Guilty!''   ''guilty!'* 

I  shall  despair.     There   is   no   creature   loves  me ; 

And  if  I  die,  no  soul  will  pity  me : 

Nay,  wherefore  should  they,  since  that  I  myself 

Find  in  myself  no  pity  to  myself? 

Methought  the  souls  of  all  that  I  had  murdered 

Came  to  my  tent,  and  every  one  did  threat 

To-morrow's  vengeance  on  the  head  of  Richard. 


290  THE  WOBLD'S  CHILDHOOD 

Some  men  think  they  will  be  able  to  escape 
from  their  sins,  and  from  the  remorse  for 
them,  by  engrossing  themselves  in  business, 
and  so  filling  the  mind  and  heart  with  cares 
that  there  will  be  no  time  for  thoughts  of 
the  past.  Herod  tried  that  after  he  had  be- 
headed John  the  Baptist.  But  he  failed. 
And  as  soon  as  the  news  came  to  him  of  the 
wonderful  miracles  which  Jesus  Christ  was 
working,  the  terrible  picture  came  back  to 
Herod's  imagination.  Memory  put  him 
again  at  that  dinner  table  where  the  young 
Herodias  danced  before  him  and  the  cruel 
hard-hearted  guests  sat  about  him.  He 
sees  again  the  courtesying  young  maiden  as 
she  calls  upon  him  to  make  good  his  drunken 
promise  to  give  her  whatever  she  asks,  as 
she  demands  the  head  of  John  the  Baptist 
on  a  charger.  He  feels  again  the  sinking 
of  his  coward  heart  as  he  gives  command- 
ment for  the  awful  crime,  and  again  he  looks 
upon  that  pure  stern  face,  that  even  in  death 
seems  to  be  his  judge,  as  they  bring  the 
dead  man's  head  into  the  dining-room.  And 
so  Herod,  when  he  hears  about  Jesus,  cries 
out,  *^It  is  John  the  Baptist  whom  I  be- 
headed.   He  is  risen  from  the  dead!"    No, 


USELESS  COVE  BIN  G  FOB  SIN  297 

tho  you  are  as  busy  as  a  king,  you  will  not 
thus  keep  your  sins  covered. 

Some  think  time  will  wear  sin  out  and 
efface  its  memory.  They  have  not  thought 
of  their  sins  for  a  long  time,  and  they  fancy 
therefore  that  their  remorse,  like  a 
scorpion's  sting,  has  been  plucked  out  by 
the  roots,  and  will  never  trouble  them  any 
more.  The  brethren  of  Joseph  thought  that. 
But  on  that  memorable  day  in  the  palace 
of  Pharaoh,  when  the  prime  minister's  heart 
seemed  turned  against  them,  the  sorrow  of 
Joseph,  the  lad  whom  they  had  sold  into 
slavery  twenty  years  before,  gleamed  be- 
fore their  faces  again,  and  made  them 
tremble  as  they  exclaimed  one  to  another, 
**We  are  verily  guilty  concerning  our 
brother.''  Who  had  said  anything  about 
their  brother?  Ah,  it  did  not  need  that 
anybody  should  say  anything.  The  dust  that 
had  been  gathering  for  twenty  years  was 
whisked  away  with  one  blast  of  harsh  wind, 
and  their  sin  which  has  been  hidden  all  these 
years  is  uncovered  and  stands  naked  and 
glaring  before  God  and  man. 


298  TEE  WORLD'S  CHILDHOOD 

II 

There  is  only  one  safe  covering  for  sin, 
and  that  is  to  have  it  hidden  under  the 
forgiving  love  of  Jesus  Christ.  It  is  not 
the  man  that  hideth  his  sins  that  shall 
prosper,  but  he  who  confesses  his  sins  and 
through  faith  in  Jesus  Christ  finds  pardon 
and  forgiveness,  he  it  is  who  leaves  the 
dungeon  behind  him  and  goes  forth  to  per- 
fect freedom  and  peace. 

A  man  in  sin  is  like  the  man  in  the  castle 
in  that  old  story — ^bound — fettered — thick 
walls — ^bolts — waiting  for  execution.  But 
one  night,  when  he  had  fallen  into  a  heavy 
sleep,  a  strange  dream  of  home  haunted 
him.  He  thought  his  mother  had  come  to 
him.  Starting  up,  he  saw  that  there  stood 
beside  him  a  beauteous  form,  who  said  to 
him,  ^^Make  haste!  Lift  your  hands  that  I 
may  release  them."  And  she  took  off  the 
chains.  She  had  beheld  him  when  he  knew 
nothing  of  it,  and  she  knew  his  name,  and 
love  had  brought  her  there.  It  was  the 
castle-keeper's  daughter.  **Lift  up  your 
feet,*'  she  said,  **that  I  may  set  you  free." 
What  he  could  not  do  for  himself,  love  and 


USELESS  COVEBING  FOB  SIN  299 

mercy  were  doing  for  him.  ^^Now  follow 
me  silently/'  She  led  through  passages 
where  he  never  could  have  found  his  way 
alone.  He  breathed  again  the  pure  air  of 
freedom  and  felt  its  cooling  touch  upon  his 
cheek.  Would  not  that  liberated  captive  be 
a  monster  if  his  heart  did  not  overflow  with 
thanksgiving  to  her  who  had  been  his 
savior  ? 

My  friend,  you  are  such  a  prisoner. 
Jesus  is  that  loving  one,  seeking  after  you 
in  your  dungeon.  When  you  did  not  know 
about  it  He  was  looking  upon  you,  and  down 
deep  in  your  heart  He  has  seen  something 
worth  loving,  something  worth  saving,  He 
beholds  the  man  or  the  woman  you  may 
become;  one  fit  to  be  lifted  to  the  joy  and 
glory  of  heaven.  And  so,  with  infinite  love 
Christ  has  come,  and  He  has  unlocked  your 
cell  and  stands  over  you  with  love-lit  eyes 
and  says:  '*I  will  be  your  Eedeemer.  I 
will  be  your  Guide.  I  will  lead  you  gently 
as  a  mother  leads  her  child.  I  will  put  my 
arm  between  you  and  all  evil.  I  am  the 
Good  Shepherd  that  giveth  my  life  for  the 
sheep.    Come,  follow  me!" 


THE  COWARDICE  OF  A  GUILTY 
CONSCIENCE 

*  *  The  man  and  his  wife  hid  themselves. '  ^ — Gen.  3 :  8. 

IK  no  way  does  the  tragedy  of  Eden  come 
out  with  more  picturesque  realism  than 
in  these  hiding  figures  fleeing  from  the 
face  of  the  God  against  whom  they  have 
sinned.  But  yesterday  the  presence  of 
God  was  their  chief  delight.  It  made  the 
flowers  more  beautiful;  it  added  to  the 
fragrance  of  the  blossoming  trees;  it  gave 
more  exquisite  harmony  to  the  singing  of 
the  birds;  it  was  the  perfection  of  their 
delight  and  their  joy.  Fear  was  not  in  all 
their  thoughts  and  they  gazed  rapturously 
into  the  countenance  of  their  Heavenly 
Father  as  a  child  gazes  with  unspeakable 
confidence  and  trust  into  the  eyes  of  its 
mother.  But  now  there  is  nothing  they 
dread  so  much  as  the  face  of  God.  And  we 
watch  them  as  they  haste  into  the  thickest 
part  of  the  garden  and  vainly  try  to  hide 
themselves  from  the  eye  of  their  Creator. 

300 


COWARDICE  OF  A  GUILTY  CONSCIENCE      301 


Let  US  notice  in  our  study  of  this  pictur- 
esque and  interesting  theme  that  sin  is  pri- 
marily and  supremely  against  God.  Your 
sin  may  have  wronged  others;  it  may  have 
harmed  your  father;  it  may  have  grieved 
your  mother;  it  may  have  injured  your 
brother,  or  your  sister,  or  your  neighbor; 
but  your  great  transgression  was  against 
God.  You  do  not  make  sin  right  again, 
nor  heal  its  hurt,  when  you  have  obtained 
the  forgiveness  of  some  one  else  whom  your 
sin  has  injured.  Your  sin  will  never  cease 
to  pursue  you  like  a  nemesis,  nor  to  fill 
you  with  terror,  until  through  penitence 
and  appeal  for  mercy  you  have  been  for- 
given of  God.  Here  is  where  some  make  a 
great  blunder.  Sin  is  not  simply  a  mistake, 
it  is  not  simply  bad  form,  it  is  not  simply 
folly  and  unwisdom;  it  is  a  wrong  against 
God;  and  no  man  can  get  rid  of  his  sin 
till  he  has  had  sincere  and  genuine  dealing 
with  God,  whom  above  all  else  his  sin  has 
wronged. 


302  TEE  WORLD'S  CHILDHOOD 

II 

We  can  not  fail  to  learn  from  our  study 
that  one  of  the  first  results  of  sin  is  to 
awaken  the  conscience  and  make  it  an  ac- 
cuser and  pursuer.  All  great  literature 
abounds  in  illustrations  of  this  theme.  No 
man  deals  with  it  with  more  wisdom  and 
fidelity  to  life  than  Shakespeare.  We  have 
all  had  on  our  lips  at  one  time  or  another 
those  words  of  Hamlet  in  which  he  declares 
that  **  Conscience  doth  make  cowards  of 
us  all.''  And  in  the  tragedy  of  ^*King 
Richard  III*'  Shakespeare  makes  a  wicked 
man  say  of  his  conscience,  ^^I'll  not  meddle 
with  it:  it  is  a  dangerous  thing:  it  makes 
a  man  a  coward:  a  man  can  not  steal,  but  it 
accuses    him:    he    can    not    swear,    but    it 

checks  him: it  is  a  blushing 

shamefast  spirit  that  mutinies  in  a  man's 
bosom;  it  fills  one  full  of  obstacles:  it 
made  me  once  restore  a  purse  of  gold,  that 
I  found;  it  beggars  any  man  that  keeps  it; 
it  is  turned  out  of  all  towns  and  cities  for 
a  dangerous  thing ;  and  every  man  that 
means  to  live  well  endeavors  to  trust  to 
himself  and  to  live  without  it. ' '  And  yet  when 


COWARDICE  OF  A  GUILTY  CONSCIENCE      303 

we  look  over  toward  the  east  and  see  those 
rich  scoundrels  who  have  been  trying  to  live 
without  it,  and  have  been  piling  up  their 
ill-gotten  gains  by  municipal  fraud,  flying 
to  the  court-room  and  falling  on  their  knees 
to  make  confession,  hoping  to  escape  the 
penitentiary,  we  are  assured  that  to-day,  as 
well  as  in  the  past,  no  man  escapes  the 
following  of  a  guilty  conscience  by  refus- 
ing to  heed  it  and  trying  to  live  without 
it.  There  is  one  thing  that  can  not  perma- 
nently be  bribed,  and  that  is  that  court  in 
a  man's  own  bosom  which  we  call  con- 
science. And  when  men  sin  against  God, 
conscience  makes  them  cowards,  and  tho 
they  may  brave  it  out  for  a  while,  a  de- 
tective is  on  the  track  who  is  sleepless  in 
vigilance  and  relentless  in  determination. 

Mr.  Spurgeon  tells  of  an  Englishman 
who  was  so  constantly  in  debt  and  so 
frequently  arrested  by  the  bailiffs  that  on 
one  occasion,  when  going  by  a  picket  fence, 
the  sleeve  of  his  coat  catching  on  one  of 
the  pickets,  he  turned  around  and  said, 
obeying  the  instinctive  JPear  of  his  heart,  *  *  I 
don't  owe  you  anything,  sir."  He  thought 
the  picket  was  a  bailiff.     So  the  man  who 


304  TEE  WORLD'S  CHILDHOOD 

sins  against  God,  unless  it  be  forgiven, 
must  come  to  the  time  when  his  sin  will 
make  of  his  conscience  a  terrible  perse- 
cutor. And  no  man  has  been  able  to  hide 
from  God.  Adam  and  Eve  failed.  Cain 
failed.  Judas  failed.  Every  sinner  fails. 
It  was  said  of  the  Eoman  Empire  under  the 
CaBsars  that  the  whole  world  was  only  one 
great  prison  for  Caesar,  for  if  any  man 
offended  the  emperor  it  was  impossible  for 
him  to  escape.  If  he  crossed  the  Alps, 
CaBsar  could  search  him  out  in  Gaul;  if  he 
sought  to  hide  himself  in  the  Indies,  even 
the  swarthy  monarchs  there  knew  the  power 
of  the  Eoman  arm,  so  they  could  give  no 
shelter  to  a  man  who  had  incurred  imperial 
vengeance.  And  yet,  perhaps,  a  fugitive 
from  Eome  might  have  prolonged  his 
miserable  life  by  hiding  in  the  dens  and 
caves  of  the  earth,  but  all  the  worlds  belong 
to  God  and  no  sinner  can  hide  from  Him. 

Professor  Phelps  tells  of  a  burglar  who 
rifled  an  unoccupied  house  by  the  seaside. 
He  ransacked  the  rooms  and  heaped  his 
plunder  in  the  parlor.  There  were  evi- 
dences that  here  he  sat  down  to  rest.  On 
a  bracket  in  the  corner  stood  a  marble  bust 


COWARDICE  OF  A  GUILTY  CONSCIENCE      305 

of  Guide's  ^^Ecce  Homo'' — Christ  crowned 
with  thorns.  The  guilty  man  had  taken  it 
in  his  hands  and  examined  it.  It  bore  the 
marks  of  his  dirty  fingers;  but  he  re- 
placed it  with  its  face  turned  to  the  wall, 
as  if  he  would  not  have  even  the  sightless 
eyes  of  the  marble  Savior  look  upon  his 
deeds  of  infamy.  But  all  such  efforts  to  hide 
from  God  are  a  failure. 


Ill 


Our  study  ought  to  teach  us  by  contrast 
that  while  a  guilty  conscience  is  the  source 
of  cowardice  and  fear  and  terror  and  a 
sure  guarantee  of  a  sorrowful  and  wretched 
life,  on  the  other  hand  there  is  no  source  of 
peace  within  our  reach  so  pure  as  a  quiet 
conscience.  Shakespeare,  whom  we  were 
quoting  a  moment  ago,  in  ^^King  Henry 
VIII, ' '  makes  Cardinal  Wolsey  say  to  Crom- 
well, who  asks  him  how  he  is: 

Never  so  truly  happy,  my  good  Cromwell. 
I  know  myself  now ;  and  I  feel  within  me 
A  peace  above  all  earthly  dignities, 
A  still  and  quiet  conscience. 


30«  THE  WORLD* S  CHILDHOOD 

But  how  can  a  poor  sinner  accomplish  the 
cure  of  his  fear  and  shame  and  get  victory 
over  the  sin  that  makes  a  coward  of  him? 
My  friends,  the  whole  Bible  is  given  to 
answer  that  question.  The  sinner  must  in 
some  way  come  into  fellowship  with  Jesus 
Christ.  My  friend,  Prof.  C.  M.  Coburn, 
relates  a  very  wonderful  incident  of 
travel  told  by  Julian  Hawthorne.  The  nov- 
elist was  traveling  in  Wales,  accompanied 
by  a  friend,  a  Harvard  student,  who  had 
a  periodical  passion  for  strong  drink.  One 
day  they  were  standing  together  watching 
some  women  with  their  little  children  gather- 
ing herbs  at  the  foot  of  a  great  cliff.  They 
filled  the  basket  with  these  herbs,  and  the 
fathers,  away  up  at  the  top  of  the  cliff,  by 
means  of  a  rope,  would  draw  the  baskets  up. 
Suddenly,  as  they  watched,  the  Harvard 
student  said:  **The  passion  for  drink  is 
on  me  again.'*  Mr.  Hawthorne,  noting  a 
narrow  pathway  running  almost  up  the  face 
of  the  cliff,  said,  *^Run  up  that  quickly. 
You  will  forget  it.''  When  he  had  gotten 
fairly  started,  a  little  girl,  noting  him, 
started  after  him,  when  she  stumbled  and 
fell,   and  fortunately  fell   into  one  of  the 


COWARDICE  OF  A  GUILTY  CONSCIENCE      307 

baskets.  Tlie  father,  feeling  the  tug  upon 
the  rope,  thought  the  basket  filled  and 
started  to  draw  it  up.  The  child  became 
frightened,  and  as  the  basket  was  drawn 
up  rapidly  attempted  to  climb  out.  It 
would  have  been  sure  death,  when  Julian 
Hawthorne,  with  his  hands  to  his  mouth, 
shouted  to  his  friend:  ** Spring  out  and 
catch  the  rope.  Let  yourself  down.  Save 
the  child."  The  trained  athlete  balanced 
himself  a  moment  and  sprang  out;  let  him- 
self down  hand  by  hand,  and  saved  the 
child.  And  the  passion  for  drink  never 
returned  to  him.  My  friend  Coburn  thinks 
it  was  because  of  the  great  principle  of 
sacrifice  getting  into  his  life.  Certain  it  is 
that  a  guilty  conscience  can  only  be  cured 
through  the  forgiveness  of  God  in  Jesus 
Christ,  and  it  is  only  when  we  get  into 
fellowship  with  Him  that  we  may  find  peace. 

A  dissipated  wreck  of  a  man  came  up 
to  a  preacher  one  day  in  an  open-air 
service  in  a  great  city  and  said,  **  Gov 'nor, 
you  told  us  to  be  good.  Look  at  me.  Can 
I  be  good?" 

The  minister  looked  at  him — and  finally 
said,  **Do  vou  want  to  know  the  truth?" 


308  THE  WORLD'S  CHILDHOOD 

**Yes/*  he  said,  ** let's  have  the  honest 
truth.'' 

'^Then,"  said  the  minister,  '*I  think  you 
are  the  worst  specimen  of  humanity  I 
ever  saw.  You  are  soaked  in  drink.  Sin 
has  marked  your  very  flesh.  I  give  you  up. 
I  honestly  don't  think  you  can  be  good. 
But  I  did  not  ask  you  to  be  good  in  your 
own  strength.  I  asked  you  to  let  the 
Lord  take  your  case  in  hand.  He  will  rinse 
your  mouth  and  cleanse  your  heart  and 
sweeten  your  body  and  make  a  saint  of 
you. ' ' 

The  poor  sinner  looked  back  at  him  and 
said,  *^Do  you  mean  it  I" 

The  preacher  said,  **I  mean  it." 

And  the  man  began  then  and  there  to 
enter  into  fellowship  with  Christ  and  to 
escape  from  the  thraldom  of  his  sin  and 
the  persecution  of  a  guilty  conscience. 

My  friend,  do  not  thrust  these  illustra- 
tions aside  as  of  no  account  to  you  because 
your  particular  sins  have  not  taken  on 
such  a  hideous  type.  They  are  just  as 
hideous  to  God  and  they  grieve  His  heart 
as  truly  as  did  the  sins  of  the  poor  drunkard. 
For  you,  as  well  as  for  the  man  whose  sins 


COWARDICE  OF  A  GUILTY  CONSCIENCE      309 

are  publicly  shaming  him,  there  can  be  real 
peace  only  in  the  consciousness  of  a  divine 
fellowship  with  the  Savior. 

A  little  boy  came  home  one  day,  having 
been  in  a  fight.  The  father  inquired  into 
it  and  found  that  he  had  been  imposed  upon 
and  had  fought  in  self-defense  against  a 
boy  much  bigger  than  himself.  He  asked, 
**Were  you  frightened,  Arthur  f  He  said, 
**No."  The  father  said,  *^You  ought  to 
have  been.  The  boy  was  bigger  than  you.'' 
**I  wasn't,  dad,"  he  replied.  **You  see, 
Norman  [his  big  brother]  was  only  just 
around  the  corner."  It  is  a  grand  thing 
to  have  a  big  brother  in  reserve.  Oh,  my 
dear  friends,  reverently,  lovingly,  let  me 
assure  you  that  the  weakest  and  frailest  and 
most  discouraged  of  sinful  men  and  women 
who  will  turn  their  faces  toward  righteous- 
ness and  seek  to  make  battle  against  their 
sins  may  be  sure  that  our  Elder  Brother,  the 
Lord  Jesus  Christ,  will  be  not  round  the 
comer,  but  in  our  very  hearts,  to  give  us 
strength  and  victory. 

I  doubt  not  there  are  some  here  con- 
scious of  sin  and  needing  above  everything 
in  the  world  to  feel  the  presence  of  Jesus 


310  THE  WOULD 'S  CHILVHOOD 

Christ  and  His  power  and  willingness  to 
redeem  from  the  guilty  conscience  that 
pursues  and  will  give  no  peace.  In  '*John 
Inglesant/*  Maltvoli,  the  wicked  prisoner, 
is  '-in  his  cell,  waiting  for  Justice,  with  her 
scales  and  sword,  to  write  finis  at  the  end 
of  the  chapter.  Suddenly  in  his  dream  he 
sees  a  bright  form  looking  down  upon  him 
with  eyes  full  of  love.  He  hears  the  words: 
**What  doest  thou  here?  I  bought  thee  in 
the  garden.  I  won  thee  upon  the  cross. 
Thou  wast  mine  with  me  when  the  tomb 
burst."  And  Christ  stretched  out  His 
hands  of  pleading  love.  Maltvoli  sprang 
up  to  weep  and  beat  upon  his  breast  and 
pray  and  cry:  **He  calls  me.  He  loves 
me,"  and  in  that  tremendous  moment  of 
divine  vision  he  shouted  to  his  sins:  ^^Oh, 
let  me  go!"  And  lo,  the  sins  which  had 
made  him  a  slave  and  a  criminal  melted  like 
fetters  of  ice,  and  the  prisoner  was  free. 
My  friend,  I  do  not  know  your  sin.  It 
may  be  the  people  that  are  nearest  to  you 
in  your  daily  life  do  not  dream  of  your 
sin.  But  God  knows,  and  your  conscience. 
His  spokesman  within  your  breast  in  His 
efforts  to  save  you,  will  not  let  you  forget 


COWARDICE  OF  A  GUILTY  CONSCIENCE      311 

it.  Let  me  call  you  to  this  vision  of  Jesus 
Christ,  who  died  on  Calvary  to  redeem  you 
and  save  you,  that  you  may,  even  in  this 
hour,  yes,  even  in  this  moment,  yield  your 
heart  to  Him  and  be  forgiven. 


THE  CALL  OF  GOD 

**God    called    unto    the    man    and    said    unto    him, 
Where   art   thou  r'— Gen.   3:9. 

THE  writer  of  this  story  of  the  childhood 
of  man  says  that  it  was  **in  the  cool 
of  the  evening''  that  God  came  walking  in 
the  garden  and  speaking  to  the  man  who 
had  sinned.  Evening  is  the  time  for  re- 
flection. Many  things  look  different  in  the 
quiet  evening  honr  when  we  sit  down  to 
think  them  over  than  they  did  in  the  glare 
of  the  noonday,  with  the  telephone  ringing 
in  our  ears  and  the  din  and  dust  of  the 
street  rising  up  to  the  open  window.  There 
are  things  that  seem  right  enough  in  the 
bustle  and  competition  and  struggle  of  the 
exchange  and  niarket-place  which  take  on  a 
different  look  when  in  the  cool  of  the 
evening  we  sit  down  to  reflect.  We  may 
sin  during  the  day,  but  let  us  not  lose  out 
of  sight  the  fact  that  God  will  call  us  to 
account  at  night.  The  heat  and  stress  of 
life  soon  passes,  and  there  comes  the  cool 

312 


TEE  CALL  OF  GOB  313 

of  the  evening  of  old  age  to  every  one  of 
us,  when  peace  can  only  be  ours  because  we 
have  nothing  to  hide  from  God. 


The  first  message  that  speaks  out  to  us 
from  this  theme  in  tones  that  we  can  not 
fail  to  hear  and  understand  is  the  stu- 
pendous fact  that  God  speaks  to  men.  The 
Bible  is  full  of  the  record  of  the  voice 
of  God.  It  is  the  great  phonograph  of  the 
ages,  and  we  turn  over  the  record  and  hear 
the  august  voice  which  gives  us  pause. 
God  speaks  to  men  under  varying  conditions 
and  circumstances.  He  spoke  to  Cain 
when  the  bitterness  of  his  envy  and  jealousy 
like  a  wild  beast  crouched  at  the  door  of  his 
soul.  He  spoke  in  warning,  but  in  vain. 
God  spoke  to  Noah  and  told  him  of  the 
impending  deluge  and  gave  him  the  message 
concerning  the  ark  that  was  to  save  the 
race  from  total  disaster,  and  Noah  hearkened 
and  found  his  salvation.  Again  and  again 
God  spoke  to  Abraham  in  the  desert  tent,  on 
the   mountain   top,    and   in   the   plain,    and 


314  THE  WORLD'S  CHILDEOOD 

Abraham  was  so  loyal  that  he  became  known 
as  the  ^'friend  of  God.''  He  spoke  to  Jacob 
flying  into  exile  because  of  his  sins  and 
revealed  to  his  astonished  gaze  the  heavenly 
stairway  with  its  angels  passing  to  and 
fro  between  the  earth  and  the  sky.  God 
spoke  to  Moses  in  the  burning  bush  on 
the  slopes  of  Mount  Horeb  and  again  and 
again  through  the  forty  years  of  his  career  in 
the  wilderness.  He  spoke  to  Job  out  of 
the  whirlwind.  He  spoke  to  Elijah  in  the 
mountain  cave  and  called  him  back  to 
courage  from  the  depths  of  despair.  He 
spoke  to  Saul  on  the  way  to  Damascus  and 
transformed  him  into  Paul,  the  apostle. 
And  God  has  not  ceased  to  speak  to  men. 
He  is  forever  speaking  to  the  souls  of 
men  when  they  look  into  the  sunset  at  the 
cool  of  the  day. 

If  we  would  hear  the  voice  of  God  we 
must  be  alert,  with  souls  sensitive  to  His 
tones.  He  does  not  always  speak  through 
the  voice  of  a  white-robed  angel.  Often 
He  speaks  from  the  lips  of  a  good  man  or 
a  good  woman,  sometimes  from  the  very 
poor  and  humble,  and  not  infrequently  from 
the  lips  of  a  little  child.    If  we  would  never 


TEE  CALL  OF  GOD  315 

fail  to  hear  Him,  we  must  be  looking  for 
the  divine  in  every  human  being  we  meet. 
A  friend  put  into  my  hand  not  long  ago  a 
poem  which  brings  out  our  theme  very 
beautifully : 


They  said,  *'The  Master  is  coming 

To  honor  the  town  to-day. 
And  none  can  tell  what  house  or  home 

He  may  choose  wherein  to  stay.'^ 
Then  straight  I  turned  to  toiling, 

To  make  my  home  more  neat, 
I  swept,  and  polished,  and  garnished. 

And  decked  it  with  blossoms  sweet. 


But  right  in  the  midst  of  my  duties 

A  woman  came  to  my  door; 
She  had  come  to  teU  me  her  sorrow, 

And  my  comfort  and  aid  to  implore. 
And  I  said,  *'I  can  not  listen. 

Nor  help  you  any  to-day, 
I  have  greater  things  to  attend  to,'* 

So  the  pleader  turned  away. 


But  soon  there  came  another — 
A  cripple,  thin,  pale  and  gray — 

And  said,  ^*0  let  me  stop  and  rest 
Awhile  in  your  home,  I  pray. ' ' 


316  TEE  WOBLD'S  CHILDHOOD 

I  said,  ^*I  am  grieved  and  sorry, 

But  I  can  not  keep  you  to-day; 
I  look  for  a  great  and  noble  guest,*' 

And  the  cripple  went  away. 
And   the   day   wore   onward   swiftly, 

And  my  task  was  nearly  done, 
And  a  prayer  was  ever  in  my  heart 

That  the  Master  to  me  might  come. 

I  thought  I  would  spring  to  meet  Him, 

And  treat  Him  with  utmost  care, 
When  a  little  child  stood  by  me, 

With  a  face  so  sweet  and  fair — 
Sweet,  but  with  marks  of  tear-drops — 

And  his  clothes  were  tattered  and  old; 
A  finger  was  bruised  and  bleeding. 

And  his  little  bare  feet  were  cold. 

And  I  said,  *'I  am  sorry  for  you; 

You  are  sorely  in  need  of  care, 
But  I  can  not  stop  to  give  it; 

You  must  hasten  other  where.'* 
And  at  the  words  a  shadow 

Swept  o'er  his  blue-veined  brow, 
^  ^  Some  one  will  feed  and  clothe  you,  dear. 

But  I  am  too  busy  now." 

At  last  the  day  was  ended. 
And  my  toil  was  over  and  done; 

My  house  was  swept  and  garnished, 
And  I  watched  in  the  dusk  alone, 


THE  CALL  OF  GOD  317 

I  waited  till  night  had  deepened, 

And  the  Master  had  not  come; 
**He  has  entered  some  other  door/*  I  cried, 

**And  gladdened  some  other  home." 

Then  the  Master  stood  before  me, 

And  His  face  was  grave  and  fair: 
**  Three  times  to-day  I  came  to  your  door. 

And  craved  your  pity  and  care. 
Three  times  you  sent  Me  onward, 

Unhelped  and  uncomforted; 
And  the  blessing  you  might  have  had  was  lost, 

And  your  chance  to  serve  had  fled." 

**0  Lord,  dear  Lord,  forgive  me; 

How  could  I  know  it  was  Theef " 
My  very  soul  was  shamed  and  bowed 

In  the  depths  of  humility. 
And  He  said,  **The  sin  is  pardoned. 

But  the  blessing  is  lost  to  thee, 
For,  failing  to  comfort  the  least  of  Mine, 

You  have  failed  to  comfort  Me." 


II 

We  have  also  here  the  most  gracious  and 
beautiful  thought  in  all  the  Bible,  that  God 
is  calling  to  the  man  who  has  sinned. 
Speaking  after  the  manner  of  men,  with  the 
selfishness  of  the  world,  we  would  not  be 


318  THE  WORLD'S  CHILDHOOD 

astonished  to  hear  Adam  calling  after  God 
for  pardon  and  forgiveness,  but  we  would 
marvel  if  we  had  not  become  so  accustomed 
to  the  thought  of  God's  loving  kindness  to 
us  through  Jesus  Christ  to  hear  God  call- 
ing after  man,  the  sinner,  not  in  words  of 
wrath,  but  speaking  to  him  in  the  quiet  of 
the  evening,  speaking  to  the  depths  of  his 
soul  to  awaken  repentance  and  win  him 
back  from  his  folly.  All  that  was  necessary 
to  let  Adam  and  Eve  die  out  of  the  earth, 
poor  melancholy  failures,  was  but  to  let  them 
alone.  But  in  His  infinite  love  God  does 
not  let  man  alone.  That  would  be  irretrieva^ 
ble  ruin.  He  seeks  him  out  and  speaks 
to  him  and  calls  him  to  account,  that  there 
may  be  the  possibility  of  his  salvation.  You 
may  always  depend  upon  it  that  anywhere 
in  this  world  there  are  two  seekers  after 
every  sinner.  The  Old  Testament  speaks  a 
universal  truth  when  it  says,  **Be  sure  your 
sin  will  find  you  out.''  There  is  a  detective 
always  on  the  track  of  unforgiven  sin,  sure 
to  ferret  it  out  and  bring  about  the  sinner's 
overthrow,  and  there  would  be  no  hope  for 
any  sinner  in  the  world  if  it  were  not  also 
true  that  there  is  another  seeker  after  the 


THE  CALL  OF  GOD  319 

sinner.  Jesus  Christ  said,  **The  Son  of 
man  is  come  to  seek  and  to  save  that  which 
was  lost/'  And  when  the  conscience  smarts 
and  condemns  until  men  flee  to  hide  them- 
selves, it  is  a  part  of  the  love  and  the 
mercy  of  God  to  make  the  path  of  the 
transgressor  thorny  and  hard  in  order  that 
man  may  be  won  from  the  path  because 
of  its  terror  and  unhappiness  and  find 
refuge  in  the  arms  of  his  Savior. 

Sometimes  God  calls  men  in  the  tenderest 
tones,  tones  as  gentle  as  a  whisper  and  as 
tender  as  a  tear.  One  evening,  in  a  service 
in  New  York  City,  Dr.  Wilbur  Chapman 
saw  a  very  distinguished-looking  man  rise 
and  say,  **I  will  accept  Christ.''  Dr.  Chap- 
man went  back  to  the  hotel  and  told  his 
wife  that  he  believed  he  had  been  used  by 
Christ  to  lead  a  great  man  to  God.  He 
thought  he  had;  but  the  next  day,  at  the 
prayer-meeting  in  the  afternoon,  he  saw  this 
man  come  into  the  service  carrying  in  his 
arms  a  little  lame  boy.  He  brought  him 
forward  and  sat  him  on  the  platform.  Then 
he  came  over  to  Dr.  Chapman,  and,  placing 
his  hand  up  to  his  mouth  so  that  the 
child  could  not  hear  him,  he  said,  **I  want  to 


320  TEE  WORLD'S  CHILDHOOD 

introduce  to  you  my  little  Joe;  lie  is  going 
to  die."  He  did  not  need  to  have  told 
that,  the  little  fellow's  face  was  so  white 
and  his  hands  were  so  thin.  When  the 
minister  went  over  to  where  the  child  was, 
with  all  the  pride  of  a  father  the  gentleman 
said,  ^^This  is  Joe;  he  led  me  to  Christ.'' 
Then  he  told  his  story.  He  said,  ^*When  the 
mission  started,  Joe  said  to  me,  ^Father,  I 
can  not  go,  but  mother  will  take  you;  and 
all  the  time  you  are  gone  I  will  pray."  I 
never  came  into  the  house  at  night  that  I 
did  not  hear  the  thud  of  his  little  crutch 
on  the  floor  as  he  came  to  welcome  me  the 
moment  the  door  was  opened.  He  would 
spring  into  my  arms  and  say,  *Did  you  comeT 
But  last  night  he  did  not  ask  me.  I  heard 
him  coming  to  the  door,  and  as  it  was 
opened  he  sprang  into  my  arms  and  buried 
his  face  on  my  shoulder  and  I  heard  him 
say,  with  a  sob,  *You  have  come,  you  have 
come;  I  know  you  have.'  "  My  friend,  is 
the  voice  of  God  coming  to  you  in  some 
tender  way  like  that?  Does  it  speak  in  the 
gentle  tones  of  a  mother,  in  the  kindly 
voice  of  a  father,  in  the  pleading  of  a  loving 
wife,   or  the  manly  regard   of  some   true- 


THE  CALL  OF  GOB  321 

hearted  friend?  In  whatever  loving  way- 
God's  voice  is  making  itself  heard  in  your 
heart,  it  is  the  greatest  privilege  of  your 
life  to  heed  that  divine  call. 


Ill 

I  think  we  should  learn  from  our  study 
that  the  success  of  our  Christian  life,  the 
noblest  triumph  of  our  personality,  must 
come  from  keeping  ourselves  ever  ready 
to  hear  and  heed  the  voice  of  God.  Whether 
our  path  be  humble  and  restricted  by  nar- 
row limitations,  or  whether  it  be  along  the 
high  places  of  far-reaching  influence,  the 
voice  of  God  must  mean  to  us  the  supreme 
guidance  of  our  lives.  And  if  we  live 
humbly  and  faithfully  before  God,  we  shall 
not  fail  to  know  the  voice  of  our  Heavenly 
Father  in  the  plain  and  simple  duties  of 
every-day  life.  Whatever  is  revealed  to  us 
as  our  duty  to  do,  that  we  may  take  to 
be  the  voice  of  God  to  us,  and  there  is  no 
way  in  which  we  can  show  our  love  and 
our  fidelity  to  God  so  surely  as  in  loyally 
doing  our  duty.    We  often  think  that  if  we 


322  TEE  WORLD'S  CHILDHOOD 

could  do  something  heroic  and  romantic  to 
show  our  gratitude  and  love  for  God,  it 
would  be  a  beautiful  thing;  but,  my  dear 
friend,  heroism  and  romance  do  not  depend 
upon  quantity,  but  upon  quality.  It  does 
not  depend  upon  the  size  of  the  canvas,  but 
upon  the  spirit  of  the  artist.  And  the 
humblest  surroundings  may  be  made 
glorious  with  romantic  heroism  if  there 
be  there  the  spirit  of  loving  fidelity  to 
God.  Henry  Van  Dyke  in  one  of  his  greatest 
poems  tells  how, 


At  a  certain  hour,  before  the  throne, 

The  youngest  angel,  Asmiel,  stood  alone. 

**Lord,  in  the  city  Lupon  I  have  found 

Three  servants  of  thy  holy  name,  renownea 

Above  their  fellows. 

But,  Lord,  I  fain  would  know,  which  loves 

Thee  best?" 

Then  spake  the  Lord  of  angels,  to  whose  look 

The  hearts  of  all  are  like  an  open  book. 

**Thou  shalt  go  to  Lupon,  to  the  three 

Who  serve  Me  there,  and  take  this  word  from  Me; 

Tell  each  of  them  his  Master  bids  him  go 

Alone  to  Spirants  huts,  across  the  snow; 

There  he  shall  find  a  certain  task  for  Me, 

But  what,  I  do  not  tell  to  them  nor  thee. '  * 


THE  CALL  OF  GOD  323 

First  to  the  temple  door  he  made  his  way. 

Through   the  aisles  that  hushed  behind  him,  Bernol 

came. 
One  moment  at  the  pulpit  steps  he  knelt 
In  silent  prayer,  and  on  his  shoulder  felt 
The  angePs  hand:  **The  Master  bids  thee  go 
Alone  to  Spiran's  huts,  across  the  snow, 
To  serve  Him  there.'*    Then  Bernors  hidden  face 
Went  white  as  death,  and  for  about  the  space 
Of  ten  slow  heart-beats  there  was  no  reply; 
Till  Bernol  looked  around  and  whispered, 

'^Whyf*' 


Within  the  humble  house  where  Malvin  spent 
His  studious  years,  on  holy  things  intent, 
Sweet   stillness  reigned;   and   there   the  angel   found 
The  saintly  sage  immersed  in  'thought  profound. 
^'The  One  of  whom  thou  thinkest  bids  thee  go 
Alone  to  Spiran's  huts  across  the  snow. 
To  serve  Him  there.*'    With  sorrow  and  surprise 
Malvin  looked  up,  reluctance  in  his  eyes. 
The  broken  thought,  the  strangeness  of  the  call. 
The  perilous  passage  of  the  mountain  wall, 
The  solitary  journey,  and  the  length 
Of  ways  unknown,  too  great  for  his  frail  strength, 
Appalled  him.    With  a  doubtful  brow 
He  scanned  the  doubtful  task,  and  muttered, 
**Howr' 


324  THE  WOBLP'S  CHILDHOOD 

Now  as  he  went,  with  fading  hope,  to  seek 
The  third  and  last  to  whom  God  bade  him  speak, 
Scarce  twenty  steps  away  whom  should  he  meet 
But  Fermor,  hurrying  cheerful  down  the  street, 
With  ready  heart  that  faced  his  work  like  play, 
And  joyed  to  find  it  greater  every  day! 
The  angel  stopt  him  with  uplifted  hand, 
And  gave  without  delay  his  Lord 's  command : 
*^He  whom  thou  servest  here  would  have  thee  go 
Alone  to  Spiran's  huts,  across  the  snow, 
To  serve  Him  there/'    Ere  Asmiel  breathed  again 
The  eager  answer  leapt  to  meet  him, 
^^When?'' 

The  angePs  face  with  inward  joy  grew  bright. 

I  have  found  the  man  who  loves  Him  best. 

Not  thine,  nor  mine,  to  question  or  reply 

When  He  commands  us,  asking  *'how?**  or  **why?'' 

He  knows  the  cause;   His  ways   are   wise   and  just; 

Who  serves  the  King  must  serve  with  perfect  trust. 


PERSONAL   RESPONSIBILITY 

*'The  man  said,  The  woman  thou  gavest  me  to  be 
with  me,  she  gave  me  of  the  tree.'' 

''The  woman  said,  The  serpent  beguiled  me." — 
Gen.  3:12-13. 

THE  Bible  is  the  great  book  of  human 
nature.  More  than  any  other  book  it 
is  a  book  of  living  documents.  There  is 
photographed  in  the  Scriptures  every  phase 
of  human  nature.  We  may  live  in  a  very 
different  age  and  in  a  widely  divergent 
civilization,  but  in  the  record  in  this  book, 
that  tells  how  Adam,  when  he  had  yielded 
to  temptation  and  had  eaten  the  forbidden 
fruit,  undertook  to  shirk  the  responsibility  of 
his  own  act  by  throwing  it  on  his  wife  we 
recognize  that  he  acted  exactly  as  men  are 
acting  to-day.  There  are  none  of  us  who 
find  him  hard  to  understand.  And  when 
we  see  Eve,  conscious  of  guilt  and  shamed 
by  her  sin,  seeking  to  evade  the  force  of 
an  accusing  conscience  by  laying  it  on  Satan 
and  his  beguiling  influence,  she  seems  very 

325 


326  THE  WOBLD'S  CHILDHOOD 

much  like  the  women  we  have  seen.  When 
we  turn  further  over  into  the  records  and 
see  Pilate,  when  he  has  not  the  moral 
stamina  to  stand  out  against  the  men  who 
are  clamoring  for  the  life  of  Jesus,  bring- 
ing a  basin  of  water  into  the  court-room  and 
washing  his  hands  before  the  multitude,  as 
if  by  that  act  he  would  wash  away  all  of 
the  stains  of  responsibility  for  his  conduct 
as  governor  in  connection  with  the  cruci- 
fixion of  Christ,  we  recognize  him  at  a 
glance  as  one  of  the  politicians  with  whom 
we  have  had  to  do. 

Our  theme  is  one  of  the  greatest  that  has 
to  do  with  our  human  life,  our  accountability 
and  responsibility  for  our  own  conduct. 


It  is  well  for  us  to  note  in  the  study  of 
this  scene  that  we  can  not  put  the  re- 
sponsibility of  our  sin  on  God.  How  natural 
it  seems  to  be  to  attempt  it.  See  how  Adam 
suggests  this.  **The  woman,  whom  thou 
gavest  to  be  with  me,  she  gave  me  of  the 
tree,  and  I  did  eat!*'   You  see  the  suggestion. 


PERSONAL  BESPONSIBILITT  327 

*^I  was  all  right  when  I  was  alone.  I  kept 
away  from  the  forbidden  fruit  and  attended 
to  my  own  business.  If  you  had  left  me 
alone,  this  never  would  have  happened.  But 
you  gave  me  this  woman,  and  this  is  what 
comes  of  it.''  All  this  you  read  between  the 
lines  of  this  suggestion.  And,  indeed,  you 
may  see  the  same  thing  suggested  in  Eve's 
answer.  **The  serpent  beguiled  me,  and 
I  did  eat."  It  is  as  tho  she  said,  **If  there 
had  not  been  a  Satan  to  tempt,  I  would  not 
have  fallen."  But  this  is  all  folly.  St. 
James  says,  **Let  no  man  say  when  he 
is  tempted,  I  am  tempted  of  God;  for  God 
can  not  be  tempted  with  evil,  and  he  him- 
self tempteth  no  man;  but  each  man  is 
tempted  when  he  is  drawn  away  by  his  own 
lust  and  enticed.  Then  the  lust,  when  it 
hath  conceived,  beareth  sin;  and  the  sin, 
when  it  is  full-grown,  bringeth  forth  death." 
We  all  know  the  strange  readiness  to  feel 
that  the  situation  in  which  God  has  placed 
us,  or  the  disposition  He  has  given  to  us,  is 
in  some  way  responsible  for  the  wrong  we 
do.  But  we  can  not  abuse  God's  gift  and 
then  use  that  as  an  excuse  for  breaking  His 
law.     God  pours  forth  His  gifts  upon  us 


328  TEE  WOBLD'S  CHILDHOOD 

for  our  enjoyment  and  for  our  blessing.  He 
gives  us  abundance  that  we  may  grow  strong 
and  beautiful  and  splendid,  but  we  can  not 
make  these  things  the  excuse  for  sinning 
against  Him.  Instead  of  blaming  God  for 
giving  us  blessings  which  we  can  abuse,  the 
blame  is  always  on  us  for  perverting  the 
good  gifts  of  God.  The  farmer  to  whom 
God  has  given  seed-corn,  who  afterward 
makes  him  a  still-house  and  changes  it  into 
intoxicating  liquor  and  becomes  a  drunkard, 
can  not  blame  God  because  he  made  it  out 
of  the  corn  which  God  bestowed  upon  him. 

II 

Neither  can  we  throw  the  blame  on  the 
devil.  There  are  a  great  many  people  who 
slander  the  devil.  Eve  says,  ^*The  serpent 
beguiled  me,  and  I  did  eat.**  But  Eve 
did  not  have  to  surrender  to  Satan.  She 
did  surrender,  because  she  wanted  the  fruit. 
However  cunning  and  wily  the  devil  may 
be,  and  however  beguiling  his  manner  and 
his  language  and  the  pictures  he  places  be- 
fore the  imagination,  he  has  no  power  to 
force  us  to  do  evil.  He  tried  it  with  Job 
and   failed.     He   took   away   his   property. 


PERSONAL  RESPONSIBILITY  329 

robbed  him  of  his  family,  afficted  him  with 
disease,  and  yet  Job  said,  **I  know  that  my 
Eedeemer  liyeth/*  Satan  tried  his  most 
beguiling  arts  with  Jesus  in  the  wilderness 
and  from  the  pinnacle  of  the  temple  in  the 
city,  and  he  met  the  stem  rebuke,  **Get 
thee  behind  me,  Satan.*'  He  failed  com- 
pletely. Christ  went  away  from  him  and 
on  to  His  work  in  the  ministry  in  the  power 
of  the  Spirit.  It  is  a  mean  thing  to  try  to 
throw  off  on  the  devil  our  own  personal 
guilt.  Satan  may  tempt  us,  but  he  has  no 
power  to  betray  the  fortress  of  our  hearts 
into  his  hands.  There  must  be  treachery 
in  our  own  souls  or  we  will  never  yield  to 
his  beguiling  fascination.  It  used  to  be  a 
favorite  plan  among  the  Indians  in  the 
early  border  warfare  with  the  settlers  to 
manage  to  get  a  hitherto  friendly  old  squaw, 
or  a  half-breed  Indian  supposed  to  be  trust- 
worthy, smuggled  into  the  fort  with  the 
whites,  and  then  in  the  stillness  of  the  night 
these  treacherous  spies  would  creep  stealth- 
ily to  the  door  or  gate  and  let  in  the  lurking 
foe  upon  the  sleeping  garrison.  It  is  in 
like  manner  that  human  hearts  are  captured 
by  the  evil  one.    He  is  powerless  to  do  us 


330  THE  WOULD* 8  CHILDHOOD 

harm  unless  there  be  a  traitor  within  our- 
selves. 


Ill 


Neither  can  we  throw  the  blame  of  our 
sins  on  a  wife  or  a  husband,  or  neighbors, 
or  friends,  or  the  circumstances  which  are 
surrounding  us.  Because  Eve  had  eaten 
of  the  fruit  first  and  then  persuaded  her 
husband,  was  no  possible  excuse  for  him. 
Because  Satan  beguiled  Eve  was  no  real 
excuse  for  her  breaking  the  law  of  her  God. 
How  ready  we  are  to  try  to  find  somebody 
else  responsible  for  the  sin  which  we  commit. 
But  we  can  not  escape  responsibility  that 
way.  Adam  could  have  refused;  Eve  could 
have  refused.  And  our  sins  gain  their  evil 
standing  before  God  from  the  fact  that  they 
can  be  avoided.  We  are  not  here  to  be 
driftwood  on  the  current  of  the  river  of 
circumstance,  but  we  are  here  to  use  the 
currents  of  life  and  make  them  turn  the 
wheels  of  our  purpose  and  grind  the  flour 
that  makes  our  bread.  It  is  idle  to  say  we 
are  in  the  grip  of  circumstances.  We  must 
grip  circumstances  by  the  power  of  God  and 


PEBSONAL  BESPONSIBILITY  331 

make  them  our  servants.  Herod,  when  he 
slew  John  the  Baptist,  put  himself  off,  I  do 
not  doubt,  with  excuses  about  the  wine  he 
had  been  drinking  and  the  oath  into  which 
he  had  been  deceived,  and  the  people  who 
had  heard  his  promise,  who  were  his  guests 
at  the  table.  No  doubt  he  lulled  his  con- 
science to  sleep  for  a  while  by  shuffling  out 
of  a  sense  of  responsibility  on  the  ground 
that  his  act  was  forced  on  him  by  circum- 
stances that  he  could  not  control;  but  after 
a  little  while  some  one  came  and  told  him 
of  the  miracles  that  were  being  wrought 
by  Christ,  and  he  did  not  know  what  to 
make  of  them,  and  in  a  moment  all  the  ex- 
cuses with  which  he  had  been  drugging  his 
conscience  were  swept  away,  and  he  drew 
back  in  fear  and  horror  and  cried  aloud, 
'  ^  It  is  John  the  Baptist,  whom  I  beheaded !  ^ ' 
Depend 'Upon  it,  my  friends,  all  your  efforts 
to  shirk  the  responsibility  of  your  own  con- 
duct by  laying  it  upon  others  will  end  like 
that.  One  of  the  great  poems,  entitled  *^The 
Hound  of  Heaven,"  has  for  its  theme  the 
description  of  the  soul  chased  by  an  awa- 
kened conscience.  It  was  written  by  a  man 
who  was  very  brilliant,  and  blest  with  great 


332  THE  WORLD* 8  CHILDHOOD 

intellectual  powers,  but  who  yielded  to  the 
beguiling  fascinations  of  evil  until  his  life 
was  marked  by  dissipation  and  despair. 
But  in  this  poem  he  tells  us  that  wherever 
he  wandered,  however  great  his  misfortune, 
however  reckless  his  sinning,  he  could  not 
get  away  from  God,  and  he  speaks  of  con- 
science and  the  voice  of  conscience  as  if  it 
were  a  hound,  perpetually  chasing  him: 

I  fled  him  down  the  nights  and  down  the  days; 
I  fled  him  down  the  arches  of  the  years; 
I  fled  him  down  the  labyrinthine  ways 
Of  my  own  roind,  and  in  the  midst  of  tears 
I  hid  from  him,  and  under  running  laughter 
Up  vistaed  hopes  I  fled ; 
And  shot  precipitated 
Adown  Titanic  glooms  of  chasm 'd  fears, 
From  those  strong  feet  that  followed,  followed  after, 
But  with  unhurrying  chase,  and  unperturbed  pace. 
Deliberate  speed,  majestic  instancy. 
They  beat,  and  a  voice  beat. 
More  instant  than  the  feet — 
All  things  betray  thee,  who  betrayest  me. 

The  poet  tells  us  that  he  sought  to  hide 
himself  from  this  hound-  that  followed  him 
wherever  he  wandered,  but  it  was  impos- 
sible.   Whether  he  sought  to  drown  his  fear 


PEBSONAL  RESPONSIBILITY  383 

in  pleasure,  or  whether  he  was  engulfed  in 
sorrow,  that  hound  never  lost  the  scent  of 
his  trail. 

Still  with  unhurrying  chase 
And  unperturbed  pace, 
Deliberate  speed,  majestic  instancy. 
Came  on  the  following  feet, 
And  a  voice  above  their  beat- 
Naught   shelters   thee,   who    will    not   shelter   me. 

That  is  surely  a  grim  figure  which  pictures 
conscience  like  a  hound  on  the  track  of  its 
prey,  but  terrible  as  the  figure  is,  it  is 
truthful,  and  it  is  only  the  assurance  of  the 
mercy  of  God  that  He  will  not  permit  us  to 
be  lulled  to  sleep  long  at  a  time  concern- 
ing our  responsibility  for  our  sins. 

In  order  to  save  ourselves  from  being 
thus  deceived,  we  ought  never  to  permit  our^ 
selves  to  blame  any  one  else  for  our  deeds. 
Nothing  is  more  unwise  than  to  allow 
children  to  lay  their  faults  on  any  one 
else,  even  on  the  devil.  Dr.  Charles  F. 
Deems  tells  the  story  of  a  child  whom  he 
knew — a  child  of  strong  character  and 
strong  passions  who  had  paroxysms  of  rage. 
Her  parents  would  sometimes  tell  her  to 
open  her  mouth  and  let  the  bad  spirit  go 


334  THE  WOBLD'S  CHILDHOOD 

under  the  table.  The  child  was  growing 
into  the  belief  that  she  was  the  innocent 
victim  of  an  unseen  being,  who  was  another 
person,  and  she  was  learning  to  shift  all  the 
responsibility  upon  that  person.  A  friend 
one  day  wisely  taught  her  the  fallacy  of 
this;  showed  her  that  she  was  the  only 
person  responsible;  that  she  herself  was  the 
bad  spirit,  and  there  was  nothing  to  do 
but  to  have  that  spirit — namely,  herself — 
totally  changed.  She  went  away  by  herself 
and  prayed — prayed  as  David  prayed  when 
the  conviction  seized  him  that  it  was  against 
God  and  God  only  that  he  had  sinned.  There 
was  no  third  party  in  the  transaction. 
From  the  hour  the  child  had  the  convic- 
tion of  her  personal  responsibility,  she  was 
a  changed  person.  So  must  we  all  feel. 
We  can  never  resist  temptation  as  we  should 
so  long  as  we  hold  anybody  else  responsible 
for  our  sins. 


IV 

These  sins  for  which  we  are  personally 
responsible  are  those  for  which  we  must 
give  an  account  at  the  great  judgment.     I 


PERSONAL  RESPONSIBILITY  335 

read  not  long  ago  a  comment  on  the  refer- 
ence to  what  is  called  '^The  Book  of  Life'' 
in  the  20th  chapter  of  the  Book  of  Eevela- 
tion.  The  writer  declared  that  this  sugr 
gested  that  each  of  our  lives  was  an  auto- 
biography which  we  were  daily  and  hourly 
writing.  There  is  something  very  striking 
about  that  thought,  for  this  Book  of  Life 
which  each  of  us  is  writing  in  the  deeds  of 
every  day  has  its  transcript  in  the  other 
world.  Every  act  which  men  do  here,  and 
which  they  are  responsible  for  doing,  is 
known  yonder.  What  John  says  about  the 
book  is  figurative,  of  course.  God  forgets 
nothing,  and  so  requires  no  actual  records 
to  remind  Him.  But  there  is  a  deep  truth 
underlying  such  figures,  which  is  apt  to  be 
overlooked.  That  truth  is,  that  every  act 
that  we  do  here  is  known  to  the  great 
Judge,  and  is  recorded  against  us.  You 
have  seen  those  old-fashioned  manifold 
writers.  Possibly  some  of  you  use  them 
yet  in  your  places  of  business.  The  con- 
struction of  them  is  this:  a  sheet  of  paper, 
a  black  carbon  paper  to  be  put  in  below  it, 
and  then  another  sheet  on  the  other  side, 
and  the  pen  or  pencil   that  writes   on   the 


336  THE  WOBLD'S  CHILDHOOD 

top  surface,  makes  an  impression  that  is 
carried  through  the  black  to  the  sheet 
below,  and  there  is  a  duplicate  which  the 
writer  keeps.  So  you  and  I  upon  this 
fleeting  life  are  penning  that  which  goes 
through  the  mysterious  dark  and  is  repro- 
duced and  docketed  yonder.  That  is  no 
fancy;  it  is  a  tremendous  fact.  Every  day, 
every  hour,  every  moment,  we  are  writing, 
writing,  writing  our  own  biography,  and 
God  knows  every  word,  every  syllable,  every 
letter  that  we  put  into  it,  better  even  than 
we  know  it  ourselves. 

My  dear  friends,  what  have  you  written 
there?  Is  there  writing  there  that  you  dare 
not  meet  in  the  presence  of  the  great  white 
throne!  Then,  I  pray  you,  now  and  here, 
bring  your  own  sins  to  judgment  by  invoking 
the  forgiveness  of  God  through  Jesus  Christ 
your  Savior. 


THE  CONFLICT  OF  THE  CENTURIES 

**I  will  put  enmity  between  thee  and  the  woman/' — 
Gen.  3:15. 

WE  have  here  the  beginning  of  the 
mighty  conflict  of  the  ages.  All 
other  wars  that  have  curst  the  earth  and 
have  fattened  on  bloodshed  and  human 
anguish  have  been  but  phases  of  this  age- 
long warfare.  All  other  struggles  have  been 
evanescent  and  transitory;  this  has  never 
ceased  for  an  hour  since  the  opening  gun 
was  fired  in  the  Garden  of  Eden.  The  ages 
have  counted  themselves  off  by  the  century 
and  by  the  thousand  years;  nations  have 
been  born  and  come  into  power  and  gone 
forth  to  conquest,  and  have  in  turn  disinte- 
grated and  been  broken  in  pieces  that  their 
fragments  might  build  up  still  other  nations ; 
but  this  fight  goes  on,  and  must  continue 
to  go  on,  until  man  everywhere  has  been 
redeemed  from  the  power  of  evil  and  has 
come  to  his  rightful  place  as  the  ransomed 
son  of  God. 

387 


338  THE  WOBLB'S  CHILDHOOD 


Onr  theme  suggests  to  us  a  battlefield. 
On  one  side  is  Satan  and  all  evil  spirits; 
on  the  other  side  is  God  and  the  angels,  and 
man  is  the  prize  over  which  this  conflict 
of  the  centuries  is  being  fought.  The  ma- 
terialism of  the  world  in  which  we  live 
presses  in  upon  us  so  continuously  through 
all  the  windows  of  our  senses  that  it  is 
sometimes  hard  for  us  to  appreciate  the 
reality  of  these  vital  spiritual  warriors  who 
are  fighting  in  this  conflict,  and  yet  the 
Bible  revelation  concerning  them  is  the 
most  probable  order  when  we  reflect  upon 
it.  Canon  Liddon  points  out  that  it  is  only 
reasonable  to  suppose  that  the  graduated 
series  of  living  beings,  graduated  as  it  is 
so  delicately,  which  we  trace  from  the  lowest 
creatures  up  to  man,  does  not  stop  abruptly 
with  man,  that  it  continues  beyond,  altho 
we  may  be  unable  to  follow  the  invisible 
steps  of  the  continuing  ascent.  And  this, 
which  appears  reasonable  to  us,  is  con- 
firmed by  the  Scriptures,  which  reveal  to 
us  on  one  hand  the  pure  and  holy  angels, 


THE  CONFLICT  OF  TEE  CENTURIES         339 

and  on  the  other  hand  evil  spirits  who 
were  not  created  evil,  but  who  lost  their 
high  estate  through  abuse  of  their  freedom, 
as  man  lost  his  in  Eden.  These  spiritual 
beings,  the  Bible  assures  us,  both  the  good 
and  the  evil,  act  upon  humanity  as  clearly, 
as  certainly,  and  as  constantly  as  man  him- 
self acts  upon  the  lower  creatures  surround- 
ing us  in  the  world.  And  this  is  what 
Paul  means  when  he  says,  **Our  wrestling 
is  not  against  flesh  and  blood,  but  against 
the  principalities,  against  the  powers, 
against  the  world  rulers  of  this  darkness, 
against  the  spiritual  hosts  of  wickedness. ' ' 
And  I  am  sure  that  all  thoughtful  men  and 
women  must  agree  with  Canon  Liddon  that 
our  experience  bears  out  this  declaration 
of  Paul.  Who  of  us  has  not  known  what 
it  is  to  be  carried  away  by  a  sudden  im- 
pulse— to  be  driven,  we  know  not  why, 
hither  and  thither  in  conscious  humiliation 
and  shame  before  some  strong,  overmaster- 
ing gust  of  passion?  Surely  we,  too,  like 
Paul,  have  often  seen  another  law  in  our 
members,  warring  against  the  law  of  our 
minds,  and  bringing  us  into  captivity  to 
the  law  of  sin  that  is  in  our  members.    And 


340  THE  WOBLD'S  CHILDHOOD 

what  is  this  at  the  bottom  but  to  feel  our- 
selves in  the  strong  arms  of  another  power, 
who,  for  the  moment,  has  overmastered  us 
and  holds  us  down?  We  may  be  unable  to 
discern  his  form;  we  may  be  unable  to  de- 
fine the  exact  limits  of  his  power;  we 
may  despair  to  decide  what  it  is  that  we 
supply  to  the  dread  result  of  our  own  fund 
of  perverted  passion,  and  what  it  is  that  this 
unseen  evil  personality  adds  from  the  hot 
breath  of  an  intenser  furnace.  But  the 
reality  of  that  evil  influence  is  as  sure  as 
any  physical  experience  that  we  know.  You 
might  as  well  say  that  some  fearful  epi- 
demic which  sweeps  over  one  of  our  modern 
cities  ravaging  it  of  hundreds  of  human 
lives  is  itself  a  creation  of  human  fancy, 
that  it  had  in  itself  no  real  existence,  that 
it  was  the  real  cause  of  no  real  disease  in 
the  individuals  who  succumbed  to  it.  Our 
imagination  may  do  much;  but  there  are 
limits  to  its  power,  and  the  higher  facts  are 
just  as  much  beyond  it  as  are  the  facts  of 
physical  nature.  The  mightiest  battle  that 
is  going  on  in  this  world  is  that  contest  be- 
tween good  and  evil  which  goes  on  in  the 
human   soul,   where  good   spirits   and   evil 


TEE  CONFLICT  OF  TEE  CENTURIES  341 

spirits  do  fierce  battle,  with  our  manhood 
and  our  womanhood  as  the  noble  prize. 


n 

This  great  theme  suggested  by  our  text 
makes  it  evident  to  us  that  if  man  were 
simply  a  neutral  factor,  the  battle  would 
soon  be  over.  God  and  Christ  and  the 
spirits  of  good  would  sweep  the  battle- 
field of  the  universe  and  man  would  be 
saved,  heaven's  prize  forever.  But  man  is 
not  a  neutral  factor,  he  is  not  a  mere 
machine.  He  is  a  creature  who  thinks,  who 
has  the  power  of  choice  and  decision, 
and  he  throws  his  influence  constantly 
on  the  one  side  or  the  other.  We 
ought  to  learn,  therefore,  from  our  theme 
the  supreme  importance  of  seeking  to  main- 
tain our  purity  and  in  every  way  possible 
strengthen  our  honor  against  the  invading 
hosts  of  evil. 

A  gentleman  describing  a  visit  to  a  light- 
house on  a  high  point  of  a  wild  and  rocky 
coast,  says  that  he  was  interested  to  know 
about  the  oil  that  made  the  lamps  burn  so 
brightly.    It  was  paraffin  oil,  the  lighthouse 


342  TEE  WOBLD'S  CHILDHOOD 

keeper  told  him,  and  he  showed  him  a  cup- 
ful. He  struck  a  match,  and  was  bringing  it 
near  the  oil,  when  the  visitor  grabbed  the 
keeper's  hand.  **Take  care,"  he  said.  **If 
that  oil  explodes  there  is  enough  to  kill  us 
all."  ^* There  would  be,"  said  the  lighthouse 
keeper,  **if  this  was  like  most  paraffin  oil; 
but  you  won't  find  any  danger  about  this." 
Then  he  took  the  lighted  match  and  put  it 
into  the  oil!  And  the  oil  put  out  the  match 
as  if  it  had  been  water,  and  did  not  take 
fire  itself.  And  the  visitor  says  he  learned 
that  day  that  there  was  pure  paraffin;  and 
that  when  paraffin  is  pure,  quite  pure,  it 
gives  the  brightest  light  when  used  in  the 
proper  way  for  the  lamp,  but  it  will  not 
explode  and  do  harm  as  common  paraffin 
when  a  light  comes  near  it. 

So,  my  friends,  the  heart  that  is  impure 
catches  fire  at  every  temptation,  but  the 
clean  heart  and  the  right  spirit,  which  God 
is  ready  to  give  to  all  who  really  seek  after 
them,  enables  us  to  overcome  temptation  and 
make  our  lives  *'as  the  dawning  light,  that 
shineth  more  and  more  unto  the  perfect 
day." 

The   armor   and   the   weapons   by   which 


THE  CONFLICT  OF  TEE  CENTURIES         343 

alone  we  may  overcome  the  evil  hosts  that 
war  against  the  soul  are  not  physical  or 
temporal,  but  are  spiritual.  Neither  wealth 
nor  culture  are  able  to  save  the  fortress  of 
man's  soul  from  the  invasion  of  wicked- 
ness. Society  in  every  age  has  seemed  as 
rotten  at  the  top  as  at  the  bottom.  And 
surely,  if  we  may  judge  by  the  manifesta- 
tions which  come  to  us  in  the  courts,  in  the 
life  of  our  own  time,  there  is  no  power  in 
that  thing  called  social  refinement,  or  good 
breeding,  or  social  status,  or  position,  that 
can  defend  the  soul  of  man  from  the  in- 
vasion of  wicked  spirits. 

Neither  is  there  any  power  in  learning  to 
help  man  to  win  the  battle  against  evil. 
Education  quickens  the  intellect,  it  sharpens 
the  intellectual  abilities  of  men,  but  it  does 
not  give  power  to  curb  the  passions.  Even 
a  professor  of  Harvard  University  was 
hanged  for  murder  of  the  most  brutal  char- 
acter. 

Neither  is  there  any  power  in  art,  or 
music,  in  the  more  esthetic  and  delicate 
graces  of  life,  to  master  wicked  passions  and 
unholy  appetites.  It  was  in  the  palmiest 
days  of  her  art  and  literature  that  Greece 


344  THE  WORLD'S  CHILDHOOD 

became  most  corrupt  and  wicked.  And 
so  to-day  there  is  no  evidence  in  any  land 
that  the  mere  love  of  beautiful  things,  of 
the  possession  of  a  cultivated  critical  taste 
for  beauty  in  art  or  music  or  literature,  is 
any  guarantee  of  moral  purity  or  safety. 
No,  indeed !  our  warfare  is  not  temporal,  but 
spiritual.  The  weapons  with  which  we 
fight  to  maintain  righteousness  must  be  the 
weapons  of  the  spirit. 

I  do  not  doubt  that  many  of  you  noted, 
as  I  did,  the  description  given  in  the  news- 
paper dispatches  of  the  visit  of  Theodore 
Roosevelt  to  the  tomb  of  Napoleon,  and  you 
perhaps  noted  how  he  took  up  the  sword 
which  the  great  warrior  carried  in  the  battle 
of  Austerlitz,  and  waved  it  about  his  head 
and  examined  its  edge,  and  held  it  aloft, 
seeming  in  the  meantime  to  be  profoundly 
imprest.  And  we  may  well  imagine  and 
believe  that  the  hero  of  San  Juan  Hill  was 
stirred  in  every  drop  of  his  soldierly  blood 
as  he  stood  on  that  historic  spot  with  that 
famous  sword  gript  in  his  right  hand. 
But  if  we  could  gather  together  all  the 
famous  swords  kept  in  all  the  capitals  of  the 
world,  in  memory  of  princes  and  warriors 


THE  CONFLICT  OF  THE  CENTURIES         345 

and  heroes  who  have  carried  them  on  his- 
toric battlefields,  they  would  be  insignificant 
in  comparison  to  that  ** sword  of  the  Spirit," 
of  which  Paul  speaks  in  his  letter  to  the 
Ephesians — a  sword  by  which  millions  of 
humble  men  and  women,  and  even  boys  and 
girls,  have  put  to  flight  the  alien  armies 
of  hell  and  maintained  their  integrity 
against  odds  as  the  faithful  children  of 
God. 


m 


Our  theme  should  make  every  human 
being  interesting  to  us,  for  it  teaches  us 
that  this  conflict  of  the  centuries  is  going  on 
ir  every  man  and  woman  we  meet.  I  think 
we  are  too  easily  discouraged  in  regard  to 
the  possibility  of  winning  the  battle  for 
God  among  sinning  men  and  women.  We 
should  remember  that  naturally  the  human 
heart  belongs  to  God  and  not  to  the  devil, 
and  that  the  fact  that  some  people  are 
notoriously  wicked  and  that  other  people's 
sins  are  seemingly  more  respectable,  may 
not  mean  that  the  one  is  farther  away  from 
God  or  in  greater  danger  of   eternal  de- 


346  THE  WORLD'S  CHILDHOOD 

feat  than  the  other.  It  should  give  us 
courage  that  in  any  fight  we  make  to  win 
a  sinner  from  his  sins,  we  are  fighting  on 
the  side  of  the  angels,  on  the  side  of  Christ 
and  God.  That  thought  should  make  us 
brave  and  hopeful  in  every  such  struggle. 
One  of  the  bravest  soldiers  of  Christ  I 
have  ever  personally  known  was  Ira  D. 
Sankey,  Mr.  Moody's  singing  partner  in 
his  great  evangelistic  campaigns.  Sankey 
feared  nothing  when  in  pursuit  of  a  soul 
which  he  felt  called  upon  to  capture  for  his 
Master.  John  L.  Sullivan,  the  notorious 
pugilist,  recently  told  the  story  of  how  he 
was  stopping  in  a  hotel  in  Buffalo,  N.  Y., 
some  fifteen  years  ago,  when  a  bell-boy  re- 
ported that  a  man  down-stairs  wanted  to 
come  up  to  his  room  and  see  him,  and  that 
if  Sullivan  would  not  give  his  permission 
he  was  coming  up  anyhow.  Curiosity  to  see 
the  author  of  this  daring  message  induced 
the  pugilist  to  return  a  rather  grudging  in- 
vitation, and  in  a  moment  or  two  Mr.  Sankey 
appeared  in  the  doorway  of  the  fighter's 
room. 

**What  do  you  want  with  me?"  Sullivan 
growled  at  him. 


TBE  CONFLICT  OF  THE  CENTUBIES         347 

Sankey  came  back  at  him  straight  as  a 
shot;  *^I  want  you  to  change  your  way  of 
living  and  set  a  different  example  for  the 
youth  of  the  country.  You  have  no  right 
to  squander  your  strength  on  wild  living. 
It  was  given  you  for  a  different  purpose.  *' 

Sullivan  admits  that  it  made  him  mad 
clear  through.  He  tried  to  beg  off  from  his 
visitor's  condemnation  by  saying  that  Mr. 
Sankey  could  not  possibly  know  what  it  was 
to  want  liquor,  nor  how  badly  some  poor 
fellows  need  a  drink  when  they  are  in  hard 
luck. 

To  this  Sankey  replied:  **Now,  Mr.  Sulli- 
van, don't  make  the  mistake  of  thinking 
that  I  don't  know  anything  about  the  world 
and  the  things  to  which  you  refer.  I  have 
been  pretty  close  to  them  in  more  countries 
than  one,  and  I  am  here  to  ask  you  to  do 
something  for  the  growing  boys  by  setting 
them  a  good  example.  Those  are  the  people 
we  want  to  start  in  the  right  channels.  By 
showing  them  the  proper  way  to  live,  you 
can  do  as  much  for  saving  them  as  I  can." 

Such  straight,  manly,  friendly  appeal  soon 
disarmed  the  big,  rough  fighter's  resent- 
ment,   and   he    surrendered    utterly   to    his 


348  THE  WOBLD*S  CHILDHOOD 

unbidden  guest.  Sullivan's  final  comment  on 
the  occurrence  is :  *  *  We  sat  there  and  talked 
for  an  hour,  and  he  soon  got  it  through  my 
head  that  I  was  wrong  and  he  was  right. 
And  tho  I  did  not  heed  his  advice  at  the 
time,  he  certainly  made  a  great  try,  and 
went  a  long  distance  out  of  his  way  to  force 
something  on  me  that  I  needed.  When  I 
read  of  Sankey's  death  in  the  papers  I  could 
not  help  but  think  of  his  meeting  with  me 
and  how  hard  he  tried  to  make  me  do  right. 
I  have  often  wondered  what  he  would  say  of 
me  since  I  have  cut  out  the  red  stuff  and 
tried  to  live  as  he  told  me.*' 

No  such  effort,  bravely  made,  ever  fails 
of  good,  tho  at  the  time  it  may  seem  to  be 
lost,  and  every  struggle  that  we  make  to 
throw  our  force,  such  as  it  is,  on  the  side  of 
truth  and  righteousness  and  against  wrong 
and  evil  helps  others  about  whom  we  do  not 
know.  If  we  evermore  keep  our  sword 
drawn  on  the  right  side,  we  may  be  sure 
that  the  glitter  of  that  sword  will  put 
courage  in  other  souls  who  are  ready  to 
faint.    Some  poet  sings : 


IRE  CONFLICT  OF  THE  CENTURIES  34© 

The  far  winds  brought  me  tidings  of  him — one 
Who  fought  alone,  a  champion  unafraid, 

Hurt  in  the  desperate  warring,  faint,  fordone; 
I  loved  him,  and  I  prayed. 

The  far  winds  told  the  turning  of  the  strife; 

Into  his  deeds  there  crept  a  strange  new  fire. 
Unconquerable,  the  glory  of  his  life 

Fulfilled  my  soul's  desire. 

God  knows  what  mighty  bond  invisible 

Gave  my  dream  power,  wrought  answer  to  my  prayer ; 
God  knows  in  what  far  world  our  souls  shall  tell 

Of  triumph  that  we  share. 

I  war  alone;  I  shall  not  see  his  face. 

But  I  shall  strive  more  gladly  in  the  sun, 
More  bravely  in  the  shadow,  for  this  grace : 

<*He  fought  his  fight,  and  won.*' 


THE  PEOMISED  SAVIOR 

"God  said  unto  the  serpent,  Because  thou  hast  done 
this  ...  I  will  put  enmity  between  thee  and  the 
woman,  and  between  thy  seed  and  her  seed:  He  shall 
bruise  thy  head,  and  thou  shalt  bruise  his  heel," — Gen. 
3:14-15. 

THERE  is  an  old  legend  about  a  temple  in 
Paradise.  The  early  traditions  tell 
us  that  there  was  a  temple  in  Eden  for  Adam 
and  Eve  to  worship  in.  Watkinson  wittily 
says  that  the  place  certainly  would  not  have 
been  crowded.  But  the  old  legend  tells  us 
that  this  temple  was  built  of  pearls,  and  was 
the  most  magnificent  shrine  that  ever  stood 
on  the  globe.  The  foundations  were  dia- 
monds, and  the  dome  was  a  mighty,  flashing 
sapphire.  It  was  the  most  majestic  temple 
the  world  has  ever  seen.  But  the  story 
says  that  on  the  day  when  Adam  and  Eve 
yielded  to  the  beguiling  temptation  of  Satan 
and  sinned  against  God,  this  glorious  temple 
fell  into  ruin  and  was  scattered  all  over  the 
planet.  So  the  diamonds  and  pearls,  the 
topaz  and  beryl,  and  all  the  other  precious 

350 


TEE  PBOMISED  SAVIOB  351 

stones  round  to-day  are  the  remnants  of  that 
primitive  shrine.  There  is  a  deep  and 
significant  lesson  in  this  old  legend.  Through 
human  sin  and  folly  the  temple  of  truth 
has  been  shattered,  and  you  may  search 
through  the  legends  and  traditions  and  creeds 
and  philosophies  of  all  the  tribes  of  men 
and  you  will  find  the  scattered  remnants 
mixed  with  rubbish,  yet  shining  in  the  dust. 
But  in  Jesus  Christ,  the  Savior  promised 
for  the  first  time  in  this  early  morning  of 
the  world's  childhood,  we  get  back  the 
temple  of  truth  in  more  than  fabled 
splendor. 


We  have  in  our  text  the  beginnings  of 
the  River  of  Life.  Were  you  ever  in  at  the 
beginning  of  a  river!  Did  you  ever  stand 
up  in  that  wet,  spongy  place  on  the  mountain 
plateau  where  the  wild  flags  bloom  and  the 
ferns  are  thick?  And  did  you  follow  a  little 
farther  down  where  a  few  drops  of  water 
oozed  out  from  under  a  stone  and  dropt 
down  over  another?  And  did  you  go  a  little 
farther  on  and  notice  how  it  began  to  trickle 


352  THE  WORLD'S  CHILDHOOD 

and  then  to  gurgle  and  get  a  song  in  its 
heart,  and  the  birds  and  the  squirrels  and 
the  cotton-tails  and  the  wild  fawns  came  to 
drink  at  its  side  and  thank  God?  Ah!  if 
you  have  been  there  you  have  noticed  how 
soon  it  gets  courage,  that  little  brook,  and 
burrows  out  for  itself  deep  holes  under  the 
dark  rocks  where  the  trout  hide,  and  then 
rushes  forth  over  the  great  boulders  and 
splashes  white  in  the  sun,  making  a  sight  so 
beautiful  that  the  little  dark  water-ouzels 
dive  into  it  for  very  delight.  And  then  as 
you  follow  it  other  brooks  like  it  join  hands 
on  the  one  side  and  then  on  the  other.  Soon 
it  is  strong  enough  to  turn  the  wheels  of 
a  mill  where  men  come  for  bread.  A  little 
farther  on  it  can  give  up  water  for  a  great 
irrigation  ditch  to  spread  out  over  a  hundred 
miles  of  thirsty  plains  and  make  the  desert 
smile  like  the  Garden  of  God.  But  on  it 
pours  its  ever-deepening  and  ever-widening 
stream.  Other  rivers  with  a  like  history, 
coming  from  mountains  far  away,  grown 
strong  by  a  hundred  brooks  poured  into  their 
bosom,  add  their  floods  to  the  now  mighty 
river.  Towns  and  cities  spring  up  along 
its   shores.     Ships   come  in  from  the   sea 


TEE  PBOMISED  SAVIOR  363 

borne  upon  its  swelling  currents,  and  fifty 
miles  before  it  reaches  the  ocean  the  tides 
of  the  mighty  deep  come  with  long  arms  to 
welcome  it  to  the  home  of  the  waters. 

Our  text  reminds  me  of  that  evolution  of 
the  river.  Here  upon  the  high  tableland, 
on  the  roof  of  the  world  ^s  childhood,  in  the 
midst  of  earth's  sin  and  sorrow,  in  the 
spoiled  paradise,  is  the  first  spring  of 
promised  mercy  and  salvation,  in  the 
promise  that  the  seed  of  the  woman  shall 
bruise  the  head  of  Satan.  Follow  that 
stream  down  through  the  hills  of  early 
history  and  you  will  hear  again  the  promise 
made  to  Abraham  that  in  his-seed  shall  all 
the  families  of  the  earth  be  blest.  Follow  on 
through  the  story  of  Isaac,  and  Jacob,  and 
Joseph,  and  Moses,  and  Caleb,  and  Joshua, 
and  you  will  see  other  streams  adding  their 
waters  to  this  growing  stream  of  promise. 
After  a  while  you  come  to  David,  and  the 
Psalms  add  their  force  to  the  swelling  tide. 
On  through  the  prophets,  Isaiah,  and  Jere- 
miah, and  Ezekiel,  and  Daniel,  and  Hosea, 
and  many  others  help  to  swell  the  stream  of 
hope  and  salvation  that  poured  over  Gol- 
gotha's rugged  crag  a  cataract  of  the  River 


354  TEE  WORLD'S  CHILDHOOD 

of  Life,  by  the  side  of  which  the  Savior  Him- 
self may  cry,  **The  Spirit  and  the  Bride  say 
Come.  And  he  that  heareth,  let  him  say. 
Come ;  and  he  that  is  athirst,  let  him  come : 
he  that  will,  let  him  take  the  water  of  life 
freely. ' ' 

Brahmo  Somaj  Fellow,  a  native  of  Bengal, 
India,  who  has  been  for  some  years  a  student 
in  this  country,  recently  declared  in  a  public 
address  that  the  appearance  of  Jesus  was 
like  the  first  glow  of  morning  on  the  snowy 
crown  of  the  Himalayas.  If  you  ever  hap- 
pen to  be  there,  says  this  traveler  from 
India,  go  in  the  early  hours  of  the  morning, 
when  the  mountains  and  valleys  are  still 
enshrouded  in  darkness  and  the  eastern  sky 
does  not  yet  show  the  faintest  tint  of  dawn, 
and  stand  on  the  brow  of  a  hill  looking 
northward  and  watch  for  the  first  morning 
light.  You  do  not  see  the  light  first  on  the 
eastern  horizon,  but  far  above  on  the  sky  in 
front  of  you.  Above  the  slumbering  moun- 
tains and  valleys  there  glows  out  almost 
suddenly  a  beautiful  point  of  light  like  a 
piece  of  burning  coal :  Mt.  Everest  has  caught 
the  light  of  the  sun,  even  before  it  has  ap- 
peared on  the  horizon.    Gradually  this  light 


THE  PB0MI8ED  SAVIOR  355 

glides  down  the  snowy  peak,  lighting  up 
each  little  pinnacle  and  bafliing  the  snowy 
surface  in  pink  and  white,  and  anon  the  sun 
rises  on  the  eastern  horizon  and  morning 
breaks.  Such,  says  the  Oriental  student,  was 
the  appearance  of  Jesus  and  such  the  prog- 
ress of  His  religion.  The  world  was  en- 
veloped in  darkness  when  Jesus  was  born. 
Idolatry  and  superstition,  with  corruption, 
extravagant  luxury,  unbridled  dissipation 
and  cruelty  following  in  their  trails,  stalked 
over  the  length  and  breadth  of  the  world. 
Greece,  Eome,  Egypt,  each  had  its  pantheon 
of  gods.  The  light  of  wisdom  and  truth 
which  Socrates  had  kindled  and  Plato  and 
Aristotle  had  fanned  into  flame  was  well- 
nigh  extinguished.  Epicureanism  and  skep- 
ticism ruled  on  the  thrones  of  philosophy 
and  ethics.  Judaism,  which  had  always  stood 
amid  this  sea  of  universal  idolatry  with  the 
flaming  torch  of  monotheism  in  her  hand, 
was  groaning  under  the  burden  of  empty 
rituals  and  ceremonies,  and  instead  of  the 
thundering  voice  of  the  ancient  Hebrew 
prophets  were  heard  only  the  senseless  mut- 
terings  of  the  priests  or  the  hollow,  boastful 
wranglings  of  the  Pharisees.     India,  which 


356  TEE  WOBLD'S  CHILDHOOD 

had  once  vibrated  under  the  strains  of  the 
Vedic  hymns,  had  devoutly  listened  to  the 
deep  words  of  wisdom  of  the  Upanishads, 
had  seen  the  noble  Sakya-Muni  walking  from 
door  to  door,  preaching  his  gospel  of  re- 
nunciation and  mercy,  now  lay  in  bondage 
to  a  system  of  grim  idolatry  and  priest- 
craft from  which  God  only  knows  when 
she  will  be  free.  In  the  midst  of  such  an 
universal  spiritual  gloom,  far  above  on  the 
firmament  of  Palestine,  appeared  the  figure 
of  Jesus  clad  in  raiment  of  light. 

And  the  Christ  who  was  born  in  Bethle- 
hem and  who  lived  and  preached  in  Palestine 
and  died  upon  the  cross  and  rose  from  the 
dead  on  Easter  morning  is  the  fulfilment  of 
the  promise  made  in  our  text  in  the  world's 
childhood. 

It  is  recorded  of  Mendelssohn  that  at  a 
concert  at  which  he  was  to  play,  he  was 
late  in  arriving,  and  meanwhile  a  local 
organist  filled  up  the  interval  of  waiting 
with  a  selection  of  Scottish  airs.  Mendels- 
sohn, when  he  came,  slipt  unobserved  into 
his  place  at  the  organ,  and,  putting  his 
hands  upon  the  keyboard,  carried  on  without 
any  break  the  Scottish  strain  with  his  own 


THE  FBOMISED  SAVIOB  357 

brilliant  improvising.  At  once  a  thrill  went 
through  the  audience.  They  felt  the  change, 
and,  looking  up,  saw  the  explanation  of  it. 
The  master  himself  was  there.  It  was  some- 
thing like  that  when  Jesus  came  into  the 
world.  He,  too,  came  without  observation, 
and  He,  too,  took  up  the  strain  of  the 
prophets  of  old,  and  carried  it  on,  but  in 
His  own  wonderful  way.  The  common 
people  felt  the  thrill  of  the  Master's  touch, 
and  from  that  day  until  this  that  thrill  has 
been  felt  more  and  more,  until  its  electric 
influence  is  beginning  to  awaken  all  the 
nations  of  men. 


II 


It  has  been  well  said  that  every  great  and 
important  question  always  becomes  a  per- 
sonal question  with  each  individual.  It  is 
impossible  for  us  to  talk  about  Jesus  Christ 
as  the  promised  Savior  for  all  mankind  with- 
out arousing  in  our  hearts  the  question, 
*^Has  He  become  my  Savior?"  A  moment 
ago  I  was  giving  you  the  utterance  of  a 
scholar  from  India  concerning  Jesus.     Let 


358  THE  WORLD'S  CHILDHOOD 

me  give  you  another  Indian  story.  A  gen- 
eral in  the  British  Army  tells  it.  This 
general  was  in  service  in  India  during  the 
awful  times  of  the  mutiny  there.  He  had  in 
his  regiment  a  little  bugler  twelve  or  thir- 
teen years  of  age,  a  very  frail  little  fellow. 
His  mother  had  been  a  Scripture-reader; 
his  father  a  brave  man.  The  father  died  in 
action,  and  the  mother  drooped  and  died 
shortly  after,  and  their  boy  was  left  alone 
in  the  regiment.  This  little  fellow  was  a 
very  saint.  He  nad  a  rough  time  of  it,  be- 
cause he  was  made  the  butt  of  the  coarse 
jests  of  the  crowd  of  soldiers.  But  he  went 
along  his  way  quietly,  living  his  Master's 
life.  One  day  they  had  gone  away  .some 
miles  from  the  seat  of  action  for  rifle  prac- 
tise. It  was  a  swampy  bit  of  country,  un- 
healthy, and  the  colonel  did  not  want  to  take 
the  boy  along,  he  was  so  delicate.  But  the 
surgeon  said:  ^^Let  the  boy  go.  The  men 
drive  him  a  hard  life,  but  his  presence 
makes  it  so  much  easier  to  handle  them. 
He  has  enormous  influence.  Let  him  go. ' '  So 
the  boy  went. 

It  was  a  very  ticklish  time  in  the  regi- 
ment.   They  had  a  lot  of  rough  men.    There 


THE  PBOMISED  SAVIOR  359 

was  a  good  deal  of  insubordination  which 
could  not  be  traced  down  to  the  perpetra- 
tors. One  night  the  practise  targets  were 
thrown  down,  and  so  injured  that  the  prac- 
tise had  to  be  set  aside  for  several  days. 
That  was  very  serious,  and  so  the  general 
gave  orders  to  find  out  who  the  perpetrators 
were.  He  thought  he  must  make  an  ex- 
ample of  them.  They  traced  the  wrong-do- 
ing to  a  certain  tent  in  which  this  boy  was, 
a  tent  that  contained  some  of  the  worst  men 
of  the  regiment,  and  they  had  a  court- 
martial.  It  was  very  clear  that  somebody 
in  that  tent  was  guilty  of  this  wrong-doing. 
And  the  commander  said,  **Now,  we  know 
this  squad  of  men  contains  the  guilty  man, 
and  if  the  guilty  one  will  step  out  like  a 
man  the  rest  will  go  free."  But  nobody 
came.  He  said:  **If  one  of  you  men  will 
step  out  and  take  your  punishment,  ten 
strokes  of  the  cat,  the  whole  squad  will 
go  untouched.''  And  he  waited.  Nobody 
came.  Of  course,  they  would  all  have  to  be 
whipt  with  the  cat  if  the  one  man  did  not 
step  out.  And  as  he  waited,  out  from  the 
little  bunch  of  men  came  this  bugler-boy, 
about  fourteen  by  this  time;  Willie  Holt,  he 


360  THE  WORLD'S  CHILDHOOD 

was  called.  He  said:  ^* Colonel,  you  have 
given  your  word  that  if  any  man  of  this 
squad  will  step  out  and  take  the  ten  strokes 
of  the  cat,  the  rest  will  go  free.  I  will  take 
you  at  your  word.  I  will  take  the  ten  strokes 
of  the  cat. '  *  A  look  of  disgust  came  into  the 
officer's  face,  and  he  said:  ^'You  men  know 
that  boy  is  not  guilty.  Are  you  not  man 
enough  to  come  out,  the  guilty  one,  and  take 
your  punishment,  and  not  let  that  lad  take 
it?*' 

But  there  was  no  reply  and  the  boy  quietly 
said:  ** Colonel,  your  word  is  given/'  And, 
sick  at  heart,  the  order  was  given  for  the 
boy  to  be  tied  up  for  the  lashing.  And  he 
was  bared  to  his  waist,  and  tied  up,  and 
the  strokes  came  down.  One,  the  second, 
the  third;  no  cry  came,  then,  as  the  fourth 
stroke  came  down  on  that  little  back,  just  a 
moan  burst  from  the  lad's  lips  that  his 
brave  heart  could  not  hold  in.  And  then 
Jim  Skyes,  the  worst  man  in  the  regiment, 
the  black  sheep,  came  bounding  out.  **Stop, 
colonel,  I  should  be  there.  That  boy  is  not 
guilty.  I  am.  Tie  me  up;  let  me  take  the 
strokes." 

And  the  boy,  with  white,  tense  face,  smiled, 


TEE  PBOMISED  SAVIOR  361 

and  said,  ^'No,  Jim,  the  colonel's  word  has 
been  given.  I  have  taken  the  punishment. 
You  are  free.^'  Then  he  fainted.  They  car- 
ried him  off  to  the  hospital  and  the  next  day 
the  colonel  went  down  to  see  how  the  boy 
was  getting  along.  Stepping  into  the  room 
where  his  cot  was,  unnoticed,  this  was  what 
he  saw:  the  boy  lying  there,  pillowed  up, 
very  frail,  very  weak;  and  on  the  floor,  on 
his  knees  by  the  boy's  side,  was  Jim  Sykes, 
the  blackguard  of  the  regiment.  He  was 
saying:  "Oh,  Willie,  why  did  you  do  it! 
What  made  you  do  it?^'  And  the  boy  smi- 
lingly said,  "Ah,  Jim,  I  wanted  you  to  know 
this.  I  did  it  that  you  might  know  that  this 
is  what  Christ  did  for  you;  only  He  did  so 
much  more.  I  suffered  for  one  sin,  but  He 
suffered  for  all  our  sins.  He  bore  our 
stripes  for  all  our  sins,  and  He  loves  you, 
Jim.'' 

"Oh,"  Jim  said,  **not  the  likes  of  me.  I 
am  a  bad  one." 

"Ah,"  the  boy  was  saying,  "He  loves 
you,  Jim.  Trust  Him.  He  did  what  I  did 
but  so  much  more."  And  then  the  boy 
fainted.  In  a  few  days  he  passed  away. 
But  Jim  Skyes  was  utterly  changed.     And 


362  TEE  WORLD'S  CHILDHOOD 

as  the  general  told  the  story,  it  was  plain 
that  he,  too,  had  been  changed. 

Oh,  my  friends,  what  Jesus  Christ  did  for 
them.  He  did  for  you.  Shall  He  not  be 
your  Savior  too?  His  love  for  you  is  pass- 
ing all  description.  The  love  of  Christ,  as 
Christina  Rossetti  says,  is  stronger  than 
death : 


I  have  not  sought  Thee,  I  have  not  found  Thee, 

I  have  not  thirsted  for  Thee, 

And  now  cold  billows  of  death  surround  me, 

Buffeting  billows  of  death  astound  me — 

Wilt  Thou  look  upon,  wilt  Thou  see 

Thy  perishing  me? 

Yea,  I  have  sought  thee,  yea,  I  have  found  thee, 
Yea,  I  have  thirsted  for  thee; 
Yea,  long  ago  with  love's  bands  I  bound  thee. 
Now,  the  everlasting  arms  surround  thee, — 
Through  death's  darkness  I  look  and  see. 
And  clasp  thee  to  me. 

It  is  to  this  Savior,  able  to  save  unto  the 
uttermost  every  one  that  will  come  unto 
God  by  Him,  that  I  call  you.  Trust  Him  and 
He  will  never  fail  you.  Let  us  make  our  vows 
unto  Him  now  and  say  with  Richard  Gilder : 


TH^  PROMISED  SAVIOR  868 

If  Jesus  Christ  is  a  man, 

And  only  a  man,  I  say. 
That  of  all  mankind  I  cleave  to  Him, 

And  to  Him  will  I  cleave  alway. 
If  Jesus  Christ  is  a  God, 

And  the  only  God,  I  swear, 
I  will  follow  Him  through  heaven  and  hell. 

The  earth,  the  sea,  the  air. 


THE   END. 


ADVERTISEMENTS 


WORKS  BY 

DR.  BANKS 

IN  TWENTY^ONE  VOLUMES 


PUBLISHED  BY 

FUNK  &WAGNALLS  COMPANY 


The  Pastor  as  a  Soul 
Winner 

Dr.  Banks's  Experiknck 

gVERY  SUNDAY  morning 
and  every  Sunday  eve- 
ning I  amat  the  main  entrance 
of  the  Church  when  the  doors 
are  thrown  open,  half  an 
hour  before  the  service  be- 
gins. I  shake  hands  with  the 
people  as  they  come  in.  The 
first  fifteen  or  twenty  min- 
utes, even  in  a  very  large 
congregation,  the  people  gather  rather  slowly,  and 
in  a  big  city  church  with  an  average  congregation 
of  from  fourteen  hundred  to  sixteen  hundred  people, 
there  will  be  a  large  percentage  of  strangers  during 
these  early  moments.  I  find  out  the  names  of  these 
people,  find  out  whether  they  are  Christians,  and  if 
they  have  any  church  affiliation.  If  they  are  not 
Christians,  I  get  by  tactful  questioning  as  much  in- 
sight as  possible  into  their  mental  attitude  toward 
Christianity.  I  go  up  to  the  sermon  with  my  hands 
full  of  memoranda  of  names  and  addresses.  Often- 
times I  have  in  this  way  made  discoveries  that  have 
been  very  stimulating  to  me  in  the  sermon  which  fol- 
lowed, and  the  fact  that  I  have  had  the  friendly 
talk  at  the  door  makes  the  sermon  far  more  attract- 
ive to  many  people. 

^T  THE  CLOSE  of  the  sermon  I  say  to  the  people 
that  I  shall  remain  for  a  while  at  the  altar  of  the 
church,  and  shall  be  very  glad  to  shake  hands  with 
any  who  would  like  to  meet  me,  and  grateful  if 
strangers  who  come  occasionally  will  wait  long 
enough  for  me  to  meet  them.  This  brings  to  me 
many  people  from  those  who  come  in  late,  after  the 


service  opered.  It  also  brings,  nearly  every  Sun- 
day, some  people  to  whom  the  sermon  has  been  a 
message  from  God,  and  who  give  me  a  glimpse  into 
their  heeirts,  and  put  me  on  the  trail  of  a  possible 
convert.  Again  I  have  my  pencil  and  memorandum 
book,  and  gather  still  more  addresses.  The  same 
thing  goes  on  in  the  evening,  and  all  through  the 
year,  every  Sunday,  rain  or  shine,  when  I  am  at 
home  with  my  church. 

J^OW  ON  MONDAY  MORNING  I  have  this  pile  of 
addresses.  With  some  persons  I  have  made  defi- 
nite engagements  for  a  certain  time  of  the  day,  and  for 
certain  days  in  the  week.  For  some  people  who  are 
busy  during  the  day,  I  have  made  definite  engage- 
ments for  certain  evenings,  and  sometimes  Monday 
morning  finds  me  with  every  evening  in  the  week 
booked  full  of  this  class  of  engagements,  with  the 
exception  of  the  evenings  upon  which  I  have  regular 
church  services.  This  gives  me  a  chance  to  follow 
up  the  message  of  the  sermon  before  it  has  been  for- 
gotten and  ere  its  influence  has  been  lost. 

rfHE  RESULT  IS  VERY  REMARKABLE. 
Scarcely  a  week  has  passed  during  the  laat  two 
years  that  there  have  not  been  from  one  to  a 
dozen  who  have  been  brought  to  a  definite  de- 
cision to  seek  Christ  and  to  unite  with  his  church 
through  these  personal  interviews  in  the  week  fol,- 
lowing  the  sermon.  I  bring  all  these  people  into  a 
class,  and  meet  them  one  evening  in  the  week  to 
study  the  simple  beginnings  of  Christian  life  and 
character,  etc.,  etc. — From  the  Preface  to  his  book 
"  Sermons  Which  Have  Won  Souls." 


Sad  will  be  the  day  for  any  man  when  fie  becomt$ 
contented  toith  the  thoughts  he  ia  thinking  and  the  deeds  he 
is  doing-^where  there  is  not  beating  at  the  doors  of  his  soul 
some  great  desire  to  do  something  larger  which  he  knows 
that  he  was  meant  and  made  to  do." 

PHILLIPS  BROOKS. 


His  Latest  Volume 

The  World's  Childhood 

Net,  $1.30.    Post-paid,  $  1 .35 

TN  this  new  volume  are  thirty  sermons  with  texts 
taken  from  the  first  three  chapters  of  the  Book 
of  Genesis.  They  are  marked  by  the  same  spirit  of 
modernity  and  application  to  present  conditions  in 
human  life  that  have  won  for  his  many  volumes 
wide  circle  of  readers.  They  abound  in  suggestive 
anecdotes,  pertinent  quotations  and  uplifting  com- 
ments on  life.  Among  the  significant  titles  are  ' '  The 
Background  of  Human  Life,"  "The  Treasures  of 
the  Night,"  "The  Appeal  of  the  Sky,"  "The 
Romance  of  the  Fields,"  "The  Lost  Paradise," 
"  The  Conflict  of  the  Centuries,"  etc. 

Stirring   Revival  Sermons 

Gracious  revivals  have  been  awakened  by  them 

Sermons  Which  Have  Won  Souls. $1.40 

Christ  and  His  Friends 1.50 

Paul  and  His  Friends 1.50 

David  and  His  Friends 1.50 

Fisherman  and  His  Friends 1.50 

The  Unexpected  Christ 1.50 

John  and  His  Friends 1.50 

On  the  Trail  of  Moses 1.20 

The  Sinner  and  His  Friends 1.30 

u  PREACHERS  DESIRING-  to  get  into  the  secret 
of  thorough,  systematic,  successful  revival 
work,"  says  Dr.  George  E.  Reed,  President  of  Dick- 
inson College,  "  will  do  well  to  sit  at  the  feet  of  this 
master  in  the  art  of  winning  men  to  the  better  life. " 
His  sermons  are  designed  to  save  souls  ;  he  goes  into 
his  pulpit  prepared  "  to  throw  the  life-line  "  ;  as  was 
said  of  Richard  Baxter,  the  author  of  "  Holy  Living 
and  Holy  Dying  " — "  He  preaches  as  never  sure  to 
preach  again,  and  as  a  dying  man  to  dying  men." 


Illustrations 

•'  Our  age  is  restleaa  ;  we  mast  not  be  prosy.'* 

-SPURQKON. 

Windows  for  Sermons $  1 .20 

Anecdotes  and  Morals 1'50 

Poetry  and  Morals 1>60 

For  public  speakers  on  religious  topics,  preachers, 
writers,  and  others  who  have  occasion  to  enforce 
their  spoken  or  written  words  with  the  best  and 
brightest  of  illustrations.  Dr.  Banks  has  provided 
an  unusually  rich  and  abundant  supply  in  these 
serviceable  books. 

WINDOWS  FOR  SEBMONS  is  a  stadj  of  the  art  of 
fiermonic  illuBtrations,  together  with  400  fresh,  choice  illus- 
trations and  a  special  department  of  illustrations  suitable  for 
reform  addresses.  The  author  has  endeavored  to  answer 
many  questions  put  to  him  concerning  the  art  of  apt  illus- 
tration. 

ANECDOTES  AND  MORALS  is  a  series  of  over  500 
striking  illustrations  drawn  from  every-day  incidents,  each 
accompanied  with  a  clear  and  forceful  character  lesson. 

POETRY  AND  MORALS— a  unique  adaptation  of  averse 
or  a  poem  to  enforce  a  given  truth— a  volume  of  great  service 
to  the  speaker  or  writer  desiring  to  quote  an  appropriate 
poetic  illustration. 


"Dr.  Banks  has  become  recognized  as  a  master  of  effective 
illustration.  His  books  have  the  charm  of  freshness ;  his 
anecdotes  are  bright,  fresh  incidents,  as  Dr.  Banks  has  seen 
them  in  actual  life— not  those  gathered  from  other  hooka." 
—Christian  index,  Atlanta. 

"More  than  half  a  thousand  anecdotes,  some  witty,  all 
pointed  and  instructive,  make  up  'Anecdotes  and  Morals.'  All 
have  a  purpose  and  are  forcefully  expressed.  They  deal 
with  practical  facts  in  an  original  way.  There  is  nothing 
dry  about  them.  They  are  lively,  straightforward,  good- 
humored,  and  above  all,  compact."— The  Journal,  Boston. 


To  Young  Men 

SympathAtic— strong— true 

The  Christian  Gentleman 76 

Twentieth-Century  Knighthood 75 

My  Young  Man 75 

"  Dr.  Banks  is  peculiarly  happy  in  addreesing  young  men. 
He  arouses  their  best  and  noblest  feelings ;  he  presents  such 
a  strong,  noble,  attractive  picture  of  pure  manhood— the 
Christian  gentleman,  the  dutiful  son— the  kind  brother,  the 
affectionate  lover,  the  true  husband  and  eeneible  father- 
that  it  is  like  a  picture  drawn  by  a  great  master,  intensely 
human,  yet  practically  attainable.  He  has  been  much  in  de- 
mand at  Y.  M.  0.  A.''s,  where  the  young  men  hear  him  with 
marked  attention,  respect,  and  admiration.— Boston  Herald. 

*^  He  has  a  picturesque  vocabulary,  a  trenchant  style,  and 
a  happy  power  of  illustration  that  call  attention  at  once,  and 
doubtless  make  Dr.  Banks  a  popular  and  effective  clergy- 
man."—Dally  News,  Nashville. 


To  Boys  and  Girls 

He  fascinstea  children 

Sermon  Stories  for  Boys  and  Glrls.~ $1.00 

Hero  Tales  from  Sacred  Story 1.50 

"  There  will  always  be  a  demand  for  books  suitable  for  chil- 
dren's reading  on  Sunday.  While  many  writers  have 
attempted,  comparatively  few  have  succeeded  in  producing 
a  book  that  could  be  strictly  adapted  to  this  particular  pur- 
pose. Dr.  Banks  certainly  has  succeeded  in  furnishing 
several  admirable  Sunday  stories.  They  have  no  text,  but 
the  foundation  for  each  story  is  a  well-defined  moral,  kept 
in  the  background  till  the  incidents  have  captivated  the 
child's  mind  and  made  it  ready  for  the  final  word."— The 
Outlook,  New  York. 

"  Dr.  Banks  is  an  entertaining  story-teller,  and  gleans  from 
mythology,  history,  newspaper  observation- f  rom  all  sources 
for  illustrations  in  these  thirty-one  Bermona."— Tho  Con- 
Oraaatlonslist,  Boston. 


Temperance 

New  «nd  forceful 

Seven  Times  Around  Jericho 75 

The  Saloon-Keeper's  Ledger 76 

••Jericho  is  the  vice  of  intemperance.  The  eeren  marches 
aroand  it  are  seven  diBCOurses  contained  In  the  volume.  The 
title  BUggests  that  if  the  armiee  of  temperance  persevere  in  their 
warfare  against  the  Jericho  of  liquor,  its  walls  will  fall  like 
those  of  Jericho  of  old.  Hearts  must  be  stirred,  consciences 
quickened,  youth  trained,  soldiers  recruited,  sentiment  crys- 
talized.  That's  agitation,  and  means  education  at  the  fire- 
side, in  the  schoolroom,  in  the  church,  in  politics,  in  the 
printed  page.  Apologists  must  be  silenced  and  indifference 
checkmated.  Protection  must  be  taken  from  the  saloon 
and  given  to  the  boy.  All  this  involves  consecralion, 
time,  labor,  sacrifice,  prayer,  speech,  and  even  song  and 
shouts,  before  the  walls  of  this  curse  of  modem  Jericho  of  the 
saloon  shall  fall.  It  will  require  man  to  pray  as  if  everything 
depended  on  Gk)d,  and  yet  to  work  as  if  all  must  be  done  by 
man— In  short,  a  deep  conviction  that  what  ought  to  be^  vtU 
5«,  if  we  persevere.— Louisvlilo  Courier-Journal. 


Prayer-Meetings 

Jost  the  book 

A  Year's  Prayer-Meeting  Talks $1.00 

"  The  author's  preface  to  this  book  contains  the  keynote 
that  is  worthy  of  sounding.  Dr.  Banks  says :— '  I  think 
one  of  the  chief  reasons  why  the  prayer-meeting  has  been 
well  attended  is  because  I  have  made  much  of  my  announce- 
ments of  It  on  Sundays,  and  have  made  as  careful  prepara- 
tion for  the  prayer-meeting  talk,  in  the  selection  and 
arrangement  of  music,  and  indeed  In  all  particulars,  as  for 
the  services  on  Sundays.'  And  when  we  look  through  these 
'  talks '  we  find  the  results  of  this  preparation.  He  gives  his 
people  something  interesting  and  something  practical  as  well 
as  spiritual.  There  is  much  that  is  truly  inspiring;  there  la 
life  and  action,  apt  illustrations  and  entertaining  anecdotes. 
In  fact,  they  are  eminently  helpful  talks  for  the  every-day 
life  of  the  average  man  and  woman."— Christian  Obaarver, 
Louisville,  Ky. 


Tributes  to  Dr.  Banks's  Genius 


"  Dr.  Banks's  minietry  has  been  a  most  fruitful  one.  He 
preaches  the  sermon  people  gladly  listen  to— simple  in  lan- 
guage, evangelical  in  spirit,  deeply  in  earnest,  and  sincerely, 
tenderly,  and  t&ctfnUj  personal.  We  can  not  hare  too  many 
of  such  sermons."— The  Interior,  Chicago. 

"  Dr.  Banks  is  a  type  of  the  modern,  progressive,  success- 
ful preacher  whose  heart  is  set  on  soul-saving,  and  who  turns 
his  energy  into  those  channels  from  which  the  best  results 
ensue.''- Richmond  (Va.)  Times-Dispatch. 

"Dr.  Banks  has  eminent  skill  in  stating  and  illustrating 
familiar  truths  in  a  striking  manner  and  in  getting  the  ani- 
mated interest  of  his  hearers."— The  Advance,  Chicago. 

•'  There  Is  no  more  distinguished  example  of  the  modem 
people's  preacher  in  the  American  pulpit  to-day  than  Dr. 
Banks."— The  Independent,  New  York. 

"  Dr.  Banks  is  a  born  preacher,  a  man  of  God  finding  his 
way  into  the  hearts  of  the  people  by  a  plain,  direct,  forcible, 
and  fearless  proclamation  of  the  unvarnished  truth.  His  ser- 
mons are  models  of  simplicity  and  a  happy  freedom  from 
strained  effort.  They  have  wonderful  unction."— Balti- 
more Methodist,  Baltimore. 

"  Dr.  Banks  has  great  felicity  in  presenting  themes  that  are 
pertinent  to  the  lives  people  actually  live,  and  his  command 
of  effective  illustration  is  exceptional."— Christian  index, 
Atlanta. 

"  Dr.  Banks  is  not  patronizing,  nor  does  he  permit  himself 
to  show  any  anxious  effort  to  interest.  His  thought,  with 
its  clever  word  illustration,  is  trusted  to  do  its  own  work."— 
Sunday-School  Times,  Philadelphia. 

••  Dr.  Banks  is  a  preacher  in  actual  battle.  There  are  no 
flourishes,  but  only  the  straight,  hard  thrust  of  the  man  of 
God  who  knows  his  weapon  and  plies  the  Sword  of  4he 
Spirit  right  well.  If  any  preacher  aspires  to  becoming  a  soul- 
winner,  let  him  study  Dr.  Banks's  books."— Charles  L. 
Qoodell,  D.D.,  New  York. 

FUNK  &  WAGNALLS  COMPANY 

44-60  East  23d  Street,  NEW  YORK 


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